I cannot believe that I am leaving in 4 days. The place that I have called home for nearly 6 months, I will leave and return to normal life; winter in the Midwest. Life down here as taught to appreciate the small things; a smile from a child, clean water, shoes, a women’s laugh. Things that I took for granted back home. Things I would have never thought twice about having. It is one thing to learn something in a text book or discuss in a classroom, and a completely separate thing to live it. To understand life here by reading my words, is impossible. No matter how hard I try to capture the essence of this place, I will never give it justice. I am not poet, artist or storyteller. I am just one person who has been forever changed by place that has changed hundreds.
I once wrote that I was “scared that I’m not strong enough to make it” Now I know, I am strong enough. I always have been, I just lacked the faith in myself to see it. Now, I understand what kind of a person I am, what I am made of. There will always be fear, and doubt – but that’s just life. We can’t be happy, cheerful and confident all time. That would get annoying.
Although I am sad to leave this place –I know that I am leaving behind more than what I came with. Toys, sewing needles, construction paper, and health brochures are props – ways to grab attention, get people to come and see what you have. It’s the stuff that they leave with – even if it is just half of what you said – the knowledge to help save their lives and the lives of their children is so much more than I can even begin to describe. I only hope, that everyone in their lives gets a chance to feel what I have felt working here – to feel that what you do in your life is important, that one person can improve whatever little corner of the world you end up in. That the passion that you hold inside yourself that you thought would take you nowhere, can make a difference in another human life and take you on the journey that in your most imaginative dreams – you could never see.
