When I came to Guinea, I realized, as I knew I would, that teaching was just the background noise to my own personal learning experience. It's just that the lessons I have learned are not the lessons I expected to learn. I've learned:
- That life is precious. Oh, so precious.
- That in America, we build a wall between ourselves and death. Or we think we do, and that's just a facade. But living and knowing that death is always there, always intrinsically bound to life, is not easy.
- That I fight back.
- That this too shall pass. For better or worse, life will change.
- That my trash is a Guinean child's toy.
- Food is nourishment. It should not be wasted.
- That people can be there for you, even when you go weeks without communicating.
- That being called out for being different is hard to stomach day after day after day.
- That laughter can unite us all.
- Especially when you're laughing at yourself.
- That Guinean hospitality means opening yourself up to give too much. And that emotionally, I do that. But when it comes to chocolate? Oh hell, no.
- Just keep chipping away at things and they will eventually come to pass.
- That I am whole unto myself. Or I can be, sometime, when I self-actualize.
- That it's OK to just be on the path, and not have reached the destination yet.
- That nothing can be taken for granted--my health, running water, basic math skills.
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| Double Rainbow--double hope? |
