I'm finding it very difficult to verbalize my experiences in Africa. I wonder if that's normal. It'd be nice to get a second opinion on that.
What I mean is that when people ask me "How was your trip?" I find my self just saying that it was "incredible" or "life changing" or something else that seems to be drab, expressionless and typical. But see that's just it. For probably the first time I really mean those words in their entirety. This trip, this working experience was absolutely incredible. It changed my life. It made me look at things completely differently. And by things I mean EVERY aspect of my life. The last couple of days I've found my self doing things in the house, the normal daily tasks that I do, reading, playing with my dog and throughout these tasks, I've been noticing just how many things I waste. Water, paper towels, plastic bags, electricity. But what's so wonderful and I'm excited even typing this is that for the first time I'm not just saying "Well, I'll try harder next time" , but I'm actually stopping what ever it is that I am doing to waste. Turning off the water while I brush my teeth, bringing my on bag to the store, small things but they mean something to me now. Being concerned about the rise in global warming and changing your life to make a difference is a noble thing. But to be concerned about PEOPLE and how your actions on on side of the world off set peoples lives on the other is how I want to live. Sure, maybe turning the water off isn't going to do much for someone who doesn't have water, but on the same level, conserving electricity lead to me paying less money every month, which will lead to me having more money for travel, which in turn will allow to go back to Africa and DO something for those who need help the most. If it means no a/c for a little while, I can live with that.
I think I should begin by saying that this is going to take me a little while. Decompressing I mean. I don't fully feel that I am in the united states yet. When I arrived at JFK after the 24 hr. long flight, I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues about the feeling that we don't really belong here (the united states). I've done a fair bit of travelling and each time I come back, I feel less and less a part of the ethos and 'beat' of the U.S., and of New York specifically. I think there's a Minor Threat song called 'Out of Step" actually. I should know that, they were one of my favorite bands growing up. But that's besides that point. On arriving in JFK friday and walking down the corridors towards Immigration, I feel less and less like this is my final destination. It's just a feeling of course but impossible to ignore all the same. That probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm just spitting out the thoughts as they go.
I think I left of in my last blog with preparations to leave Namibia, so I'll briefly continue there. We were not able to finish the construction of all of the houses we wanted to build. We had wanted to build houses for 20 San families and we finished about 16. The whole job was beset by problems. But that wasn't a deterrent. If anything it showed just how similar things are. I mean in the U.S. you will always have problem on a job site. The problems we were experiencing were simply relative to the area that we were working in. Electricity was a constant problem. Due mostly to the fact that we were working in the bush. we were powered my a single generator, which meant that certain jobs could only be done one at a time. We coped with this by doing the majority of our jobs manually. In fact the only machine driven jobs were roofing, and concrete mixing. Well, i should say that concrete mixing started out as machine driven and soon turned in to manual. the mixing machine gave out on us about 2/3 of the way into the job. Which lead to mixing the concrete with spades (Note: I've chosen to use the local terms for machinery and tools to save time and point out differences in construction colloquialisms. A spade is a shovel). No easy task, especially given that the winter in Namibia is decieving. The day would usually start out pretty cold and warm up fairly quickly. This was ok, however, everyday at about 14:00, flies would appear out of no where. Not the type of flies that just move away with a swat, but the type that crawl on your face and fly around your ears incessantly. But it was great to engage the mind and see how we could work around these. In fact that was one of the most interesting aspects of this experience. How to work with what you have when you have nothing else. There were times when we simply had no water because the town had shut of water for construction or modification to the main. This happened several times during construction. And it was very frustrating for the head foreman, Mwrarii. Understandably so, this project was very personal to him. The town that we were working in, Eenhanna is in Northern Namibia and Mwrarii had fought on the side of SWAPO (South West African Peoples Organization, a resistance group) in that very town during Namibia's independence struggle. Specifically in the aspect of guerilla warfare. I was able to work very closely with him during the construction and he told me that there was once nothing in the town but military bases and several large battles were fought on the very ground that we stood on...
On this thought, I will continue later.
0 comments:
Post a Comment