“Where are you from?” –A question I’ve been asked thousands of times since landing in Indonesia six months ago.
After I answer “America” I’m almost guaranteed to receive the same reply from people all over the world… something to the effect of “Oh wow, America, it must be great there”
Back in January my reply to those comments was something short and thoughtless like “Yup! It sure is!”
But as we’ve reached mid-July my response has changed; every month my eyes are opened to how “great” America truly is. Every month something reminds me to be grateful for MY country:
The people of Nias Island in Indonesia eat salt fish three times a day. They have to collect their water for chores, cooking, and drinking from a creek every morning. Our hosts sister lost her baby on the way to the hospital because the closest one to her was over 4 hours away. Most of these people live on dirt floors and under thatched roofs with no electricity and shower that look a little something like this
While the Philippines has beautiful beaches it also has a huge trash problem. Trash is everywhere, there’s no solution. People live throughout the dumps. Kids play in garbage while their parents pick though it, that’s the childhood they know.
Money doesn’t go far in Laos, people live on close to nothing. Elderly women live in rooms like the one pictured below. There’s no comfy old folks home, no plush retirement community options for them.
Cambodian hospitals are full of people who have lost limbs after stepping on and triggering land mines left over from the genocide.
Our Vietnamese students have decisions made for them, they don’t have a say in their school, their future career, or their religion.
The refuges we met in Bosnia can’t share their faith for fear of being stabbed or imprisoned. They’ve been on the run, living in horrible conditions all in search of freedom, something I’ve had all my life and never thought much about.
Kosovo sits in the middle of eastern Europe and yet the people here are only permitted visas that allow them to go to Albania, Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. They’re a 6-hour road trip from Greece and a short flight from Italy or Croatia and wont be seeing the beauty so many of us Americans have flown hours to see because they’re not allowed to.
Yes, we have our issues and our complaints; and some of those complaints are valid… but we also have SO MUCH to be thankful for.
Now when I’m asked where I’m from I answer with a smile as I think of all the reasons why America is the “Land that I Love”
(and how its filled with the people I love…you guys!)
Love, Megan
