Once you choose hope, anything's possible.
Christopher Reeve
So I took a sick day yesterday. I had't been feeling great the last few days. Usually I have a stomach of steel when I travel; even in Mexico, I never had even once ounce of trouble. However, the last few days have been pretty rough. I don't know whether it was something I ate, or maybe I ingested some tap water accidentally, but I've not been impressed with this! I suffered through feeling lousy Monday at work, but when I still wasn't feeling better yesterday, I decided to stay home.
It ended up being a really great call. I got alot of work done from home, as well as some little errands and stuff that really needed to be done during the week. I finally got to buy wool and knitting needles so that I could make some dishcloths for the orphanage.
As well, I finally got to the bookstore, which has been on the top of my priority list for some time! I am currently registered in an Independant Studies Poverty and Development class, so I have to write a 15 page research paper on the topic of my choice. I got a ton of books about financial aid in Africa, and how it can do more harm than good. The basic premise of my paper will be that international aid is not effective in helping African countries achieve sustainable long-term growth. In simple terms, you can compare it to a parent and a child. As long as the parent is giving the child an allowance, the child will not learn to be self-sufficient. Once the parent takes that allowance away, if the child has not learned any skills that would help him earn an income, he will basically be screwed when his handout is stopped. The more efficient aid occurs at the grassroots level, where help is directed at the acutal citizens of these impoverished nations, instead of the money trickling slowly down through corrupt beaurocratic organizations, so that by the time it reaches the people, there is almost nothing left.
I feel like for every bit I learn about what is going on in Africa, I just realize how much more I don't (and may never) understand. There are so many issues that all deserve attention, and they are all SO important. At times, its incredibly overwelming... HIV/AIDS....starvation...malaria....government corruption...random hijackings/kidnappings...widespread poverty...child labour...cholera and tuberculosis outbreaks....children without access to education...war and armed civil conflicts...no access to clean drinking water... With so many problems in this nation, where do you even begin?? Every issue is so vital, and I just want to learn as much as I can. I feel like 3 months is just enough to open my eyes a tiny bit, and then I'll be wrenched back home, and I don't want the distance from Africa to make me forget the urgency of these issues.
We've met so many interesting people since we've been here, and everyone has so many passions and interesting points of view; everyone seems so knowlegdable about so many things! Whether it's dinner with teachers and faculty from UFV who are here doing research, or the man who owns the book store, or random taxi driver, everyone has an opinion about the best ways to solve the problems in Kenya and Africa, and I am just trying to soak up every world they say like a sponge, so the I'll be able to best form educated, well rounded opionions about the things I am seeing around me every day.
Almost daily, it will hit me out of the blue that I am acutally living for the summer in Kenya. I still can't really believe it. I really hadn't expected anything exciting to come out of this summer; I was just planning on working alot, assuming that the occasional trip to the beach would be the highlight. Now I am on the other side of the planet, learning and living in such an amazing part of the world. Sometimes its acutally hard to believe we are all on the same planet. On the way home from work sometimes, I look around and can't get over how diffent it feels here. Yes, the sky is still blue, and the grass is still green, but it just feels different.
When I think about my day-to-day life at home, it seems so foreign from the way people live here that it may as well be a different planet, really. For instance, I grew up thinking in the back of my head that I really would like to travel to Africa some day. To me, this was not a goal that was out of reach. We've been raised to believe that anything that we put our minds to, we can achieve. Brian, who sits right across the room from me, just got hired at the Scout headquarter in Geneva. He is moving there for a year and half within the next few weeks. While I am SO excited for him, he is very apprehensive about his trip. He keeps saying "I've just never left Kenya... I never thought I'd ever leave Kenya..."
It never struck me that people might not be raised believing they could go anywhere or achieve anything. To grow up and never expect to leave your country, or even your town, must be so common here, but it was a concept that had never even crossed my mind. When we are told that we can do anything we put our minds on, we believe it because in a sense, it is true. As unfortunate as it is, the same just is not true here. There just are not the same opportunities for people living in abject poverty as there are for people living in a developed country like Canada. It doesn't seem fair at all. It isn't fair. It just makes me want to take every since little chance and opportunity I have. We are just so amazingly lucky.
-Delaney xo
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