Ponderings on Contrast - April 20th, 2006

As I sit in my room admiring my newly rearranged shelves, my mind drifts to other things. I see a wooden carving on my shelf. It is three figures of different colours holding up a globe of the planet earth. It reminds me of Liberia, where I recieved it as a going away gift from some friends. It is so hard to reconcile my life in Canada to my experiences in Africa. 

Every night before going to bed I have this routine. As I try to fall asleep,  I think of Africa. Some nights I imagine travelling to the interior and staying in a village. I usually end up with some boa constrictor eating me for dinner. I try not to dwell on these thoughts. Some nights I imagine teaching Literacy to people there. This is something I enjoy a lot more than being snake dinner. I know as I imagine different senarios, it is not necessarily realistic. I usually end up doing a fabulous job and change lives and am the epitomy of goodness and caring. I am a hero in my make believe world. 

Sometimes I think to my life here, and the contrast. Right now I am housesitting at the neighbors house, and I am at my parents right now, and I am also looking after a cat in a condo up the road. I have three houses all available to me. Many people don’t have one abode to call home in Liberia. Or the structure they do live in doesn’t even have a proper roof, but a tarp instead. Try to imagine living through a torential rain storm in mud hut with a tarp. And “my” three houses, they are not just shelters, they also come with food. Any kitchen I enter I could manage to put together some sort of meal, at any given moment. The food, it’s just sitting there. I try not to think of those without food, the children especially. When I commute to my job, I remember they travel by taxi. A small car, the size of my Mazda 323 would hold three in the front and four in the back, not including if there are any children. I drive each day in the solitude of my mobile.

I could go on and on. I ask myself, how is it possible to have this contrast in 2006, where we have every imaginable technological and biological and medical advance. To quote the musician Larry Norman “you say we beat the Russians to the moon, but I say we starved our children to do it.” I think as Western Nations, we can be pretty self absorbed, so focused on our own projects or amusements we forget about the others. 

As I plan to leave for Liberia in 5 weeks, I know my thoughts will be frequently returning to these topics. I wonder how a girl like me, can make a difference in a world of such contrast.