Back to Reality

It has barely been four full days since I returned from Kenya, and I am already itching to return. I want their food, made out of natural things, instead of ours, which is made out of crap, and I want to sit under a beautiful tree with a beautiful person and talk about our lives. These are not things that can currently happen in Vancouver, WA.

This weekend I head for a student government retreat, and I'm not at all excited. People are being picky about their food, they are being petty about things that shouldn't matter - don't they realize how lucky they are? They have a bed to sleep in every night, food to eat every day, and they don't need to worry about whether walking outside after a certain hour will cause them harm. No one I know has to sell their body for food and shelter, in fact, most of their parents pay for all of that. And yet, nothing is really good enough, is it?

I've been catching myself thinking certain things. "There is no food in this house." "There is no way I'm going to be able to sleep with my brother and his friend talking through the wall." I always catch myself though. "There is plenty of food, just not much that you like. If you're really that hungry, you'll find something. How lucky are you to have all of this food at your disposal?" "At least they are in the next room. Imagine if they were in the same room, or even the same bed?"

Whenever people ask, "how was it?" I always beam and tell them my trip was amazing. And it was. It was epic, amazing, informative, scary, thrilling....and far too short. There is so much more that I want to learn. I want to talk to the people in parliament, I want to meet young women who are able to attend University, I want to spend more time with the women in Kibera. I miss my friends, the ones that I spent ten days with and the ones that I met only once, the women and men that shared their lives with me in Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Nakuru and Kibera.

Is it so much to ask that U.S. Citizens stop taking what they have for granted? It has been hard for me to want to get on the computer, answer my phone, or eat with my family. I just can't seem to wrap my head around certain things that I saw, and I can't seem to make myself connect again with this world I live in. I heard it was going to be hard to adjust, but I didn't guess it would be this hard.