100% the opposite.
Thank you.
: )
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
I wish I could put it into words, all of it, any of it.
When I talk to people about Africa I automatically go to all my crazy stories. I tell people about bungy jumping- about signing a form that would allow some random man to push me off a bridge. I tell people about cage diving with great white sharks, about how much bigger they were than I expected. I tell people about riding an ostrich and standing on an ostrich egg without it breaking. I tell people about the elephant that charged our jeep on the safari and the hyenas ten feet from our tent pacing at night. I tell people about penguins. I tell people stories that are easy to tell. Stories that I know people enjoy.
But those aren't the stories that run through my head. They're great memories and once in a life time experiences, but the stories that I remember are the reasons I want to go back. It was the people, the spirit, the inspiration.
Today, four of us sat together in the movie. We sat and we watched and at the exact same moment we all began to cry. The movie showed a class of young boys learning to play rugby. They were learning on a dirt field in the middle of a shanty town...
The first time we went to the informal settlements, I was in awe. Shocked that people still lived with so little, lived in such awful conditions. I sat in the bus as we drove by miles and miles of actual tin shacks, some not even tin, just cardboard and wanted to cry. The bus was silent, 25 college students were moved to silence. We were all so lucky, so privledged, and I'm sure for many of us, it was the first time we actually realized it.
But we went in with a mission. We went in to help lay the foundation for a new community center, and so when the bus stopped we got out and went to work.
It only took seconds to see it, to see the people, the community, the happiness, the love. After a day of work, mingling, eating, and playing with children, I knew that they were the lucky ones. Although not rich with things, and although facing struggle and fighting battles everyday, they were living life how it was meant to be lived. I met people who gave more than they took. I talked with people who cared for others more than themselves. I work beside people who had given up their own lives for something bigger.
My trip to Africa was the first time I fully understood that one person could change the world. It was the first time I knew what courage and forgiveness truly were, and what a difference they could make. It made me want to do more, give more, be more... be better.
When I talk to people about Africa I automatically go to all my crazy stories. I tell people about bungy jumping- about signing a form that would allow some random man to push me off a bridge. I tell people about cage diving with great white sharks, about how much bigger they were than I expected. I tell people about riding an ostrich and standing on an ostrich egg without it breaking. I tell people about the elephant that charged our jeep on the safari and the hyenas ten feet from our tent pacing at night. I tell people about penguins. I tell people stories that are easy to tell. Stories that I know people enjoy.
But those aren't the stories that run through my head. They're great memories and once in a life time experiences, but the stories that I remember are the reasons I want to go back. It was the people, the spirit, the inspiration.
Today, four of us sat together in the movie. We sat and we watched and at the exact same moment we all began to cry. The movie showed a class of young boys learning to play rugby. They were learning on a dirt field in the middle of a shanty town...
The first time we went to the informal settlements, I was in awe. Shocked that people still lived with so little, lived in such awful conditions. I sat in the bus as we drove by miles and miles of actual tin shacks, some not even tin, just cardboard and wanted to cry. The bus was silent, 25 college students were moved to silence. We were all so lucky, so privledged, and I'm sure for many of us, it was the first time we actually realized it.
But we went in with a mission. We went in to help lay the foundation for a new community center, and so when the bus stopped we got out and went to work.
It only took seconds to see it, to see the people, the community, the happiness, the love. After a day of work, mingling, eating, and playing with children, I knew that they were the lucky ones. Although not rich with things, and although facing struggle and fighting battles everyday, they were living life how it was meant to be lived. I met people who gave more than they took. I talked with people who cared for others more than themselves. I work beside people who had given up their own lives for something bigger.
My trip to Africa was the first time I fully understood that one person could change the world. It was the first time I knew what courage and forgiveness truly were, and what a difference they could make. It made me want to do more, give more, be more... be better.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
You said exactly what I needed to hear, exactly what I need to believe... except I don't believe you. You knew it though, you knew it and you asked- I didn't lie, I said no. Said I didn't believe it although I don't think you understood what I meant. I couldn't explain it, if we had started to talk about it you would have heard it in my voice. This is going to be harder than I thought...
