It’s been a long time since I updated all of you. I made it home safely, and I have a few new ventures that will be happening. I want to shine a light on something that changed my life forever.
If you travel to countries where English is not the national language or where it isn’t widely spoken, I hope your perspective changes. Mine did.
When I left the United States nine months ago, I thought I was just going to be experiencing cultures differently. I had no idea what that meant, but I do know that I did not expect the outcome. I flew into Mongolia not knowing what was going to become of me or my team. What happened though was that I saw life in a different light.
Cars were driving quickly, giving very little regard to each other, and horns were being honked. The people were kind, but many of them at the airport expected money in exchange for the “help” they were giving you without you asking for it. People were more interactive. They would get in my face, asking for food or money, ask for life stories, ask why I was there, introduce me to others. Overall, people were more friendly than I imagined.
This would be the case in the three countries in Africa I was in, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia for the most part. The people in China did not really give any regard to who I was or who my teammates were, and in Kazakhstan and Romania, people with lighter skin was more accepted, so we weren’t always seen as foreigners.
Why is this important? Because I want all of you to experience the difference that being in countries that are not your own is like. I want you to see the people smile when you attempt to speak their language at the supermarket. I want you to experience the happiness that comes with being kind to the social outcasts. I want you to experience the joy and excitement of going into a new country that has its own challenges.
Challenges. That’s what I want you to take away from this. I want you to know what it is like to be a foreigner in a market in the middle of Addis Ababa. I want you to know what it’s like to speak English, just hoping someone else can too. I want you to go into a restaurant and try to order from the pictures. I don’t want you to have an easy time.
I want you to experience the third-world countries as they are. I want you to know what it’s like to not have electricity, running water, or anything other than rice and beans for nearly every meal. It is liberating. It is nice to have perspective on the things that are available to people in first-world countries. It will be confusing to see people happy with the things they have, while you are bored and all you want to do is scroll through Instagram or watch endless amounts of YouTube.
Third-world and even second-world countries do not cater to every possible need of every person. All that they worry about is the survival and basic needs of the people. You should go. You should see the happiness and the hardships that come with being in a different place. You should see the desperation of the people who are just trying to live in a country that does not give to people if they cannot make enough money. You need to see what life is like somewhere else, because it will give you perspective on the things you have in the states. You should go because you are curious what the world is like outside of the Internet-bubble that surrounds every westernized country. What is out there? What is truly out there?
You will find joy, faith that rocks the foundations you think you have beneath you, and you will find something different. You will find something you never expected. I found a love for people. I found a love for children. I found a love for humanity that is stronger than I expected. I found that my faith needed deeper roots, so I clung to the only certainty that we have in this world; the certainty that God created everything and that the things He created are good.
Maybe I convinced you to step outside of your home country, maybe not. I hope you take the time to learn about the people and the places outside of where you live. If you have read all of this, thank you. I don’t know if I will update my blog anymore, but I do want to say that the past nine months were integral to who I am and who I want to be.
Thank you for following this journey.
-Jo
