I think one of the most important things we can do to help ourselves
and our children grow is to meet and talk to people whose lives and experiences
are different from our own.
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Zambia with two
of our children. I have been to Zambia before in my work with a small
non-profit organization of which I am a part. But each trip resets my
perspective, at least temporarily.
Seeing folks with basic medical needs which have not been
addressed for years, sometimes for reasons as basic as not having access to
transportation, is frustrating. Using a toilet which is basically a hole in the
ground inside of a small structure made of mud bricks while children playing
just outside are visible through the cracks is humbling. Seeing a plate of dead
mice awaiting preparation to be eaten while making a house call to see someone
who is in too much pain to make it to our makeshift clinic is sobering. Hearing
about the woman who died in childbirth and the child who drowned in an open
well the week before we got there is depressing.
On the flip side, seeing folks who have made economic
progress with the small opportunities they had is exciting. And teenagers who
walk several kilometers to school each day or live in a mud house but take
every educational opportunity they get are inspiring. And it was comforting
that the Muslim owner of the bush camp we visited, knowing that we had already
sliced our spare tire on a rock so no longer had a back-up, volunteered to come and
rescue our vehicle full of Christians if we had not made it back to the paved road in three hours.
Not everyone has the opportunity to go to Africa. But there
are plenty of people all around us who have different life experiences which we
can learn from. This happens for me on a daily basis in my office in the heart
of the Shenandoah Valley. We can all learn by seeking out folks who are
different from us and hearing their stories. Maybe they have a different type
of job or are of a different race or religious or ethnic background.
Hearing the stories of others helps take our focus off
ourselves and our problems and helps us understand why others do what they do. As
one of the kids said after we got back home, “I feel bad complaining about anything
now.” Exactly.
