A couple days ago I taught my students about trafficking among children in the Ivory Coast and its link to our plethora of yummy chocolate. I am a chocolate fiend. Truth. This lecture had a completely different twist to it because it hit a little closer to home. I brought to class tons of chocolate that day — anything and everything, basically. Nestle chocolate chips, Hershey cocoa powder, M&Ms, Snickers, you name it.. it was probably in my ‘Mary Poppins bag’.
So, I’m pulling out these goodies and watching my students’ jaws drop and drool. They’re thrown off wondering if I’m going to give it all away. ‘What could she possibly be doing with all that chocolate!?’ ‘She honestly couldn’t eat all of it.. could she??’
(ha, little do they know my abilities with chocolate..)
I pop in the documentary called “The Dark Side of Chocolate” — it’s an amazing, accurate depiction of what is happening in various parts of Africa with the process of chocolate getting into our pantries here in the States. We cannot forget that little guy in the Ivory Coast who works for little or no money at all. He is trafficked outside of his will, just as many young girls are trafficked and forced into brothels and a life of prostitution.
They are forced to leave their families, friends, loved ones, and anything remotely close to ‘their norm.’ They’re already born into a life of poverty and now face the struggles of having their basic human rights taken away. No paperwork or documentation. No money. No methods of communication to the outside world.
For such a ‘happy substance’, a whole lot of pain is endured to place it on our grocery shelves.
Women crave it. Kids cry for it. Men enjoy it.. with peanuts.
The entire room went silent. They watched. A few cringed. As discussion time approached, there was more pin-drop silence. Then a ripple effect of comments came swooshing in. They were baffled. This generation of twenty-somethings frankly did not know. For starters, there is not much awareness done about our chocolate. We eat it, but we don’t think twice as to how it came about.
Ignorance really is not bliss.
All that to say, the importance of even sharing what had specifically been on my heart to my students (which was total spur of the moment) because it was not originally listed on the syllabus can make an eternal impact. No, this does not mean people stop eating chocolate. Trust me, that’s not my aim.. all power to those that do.. it is my hope that they would begin dialoguing more on this topic outside of the classroom setting. My prayer is that they would think outside of themselves and let their minds and hearts ponder about the brokenness of this fallen world in need of Jesus, and that the Lord would open their eyes to something far bigger than themselves.
Brooke Frasier says it so well, “now that I have seen, I am responsible..”
