This was my second trip to Africa in the last 6 months. Truly wonderful to be back in a land I love. The smells, sounds, and the raw broke down to the basics living of life. There is defiantly a lot that needs to be done to bring up the quality of living but there is also a lot that Africa is doing right. I am not claiming I have any idea what Africa needs because I don't but people seem to smile much more and I've found them to be very helpful. I think we are all the same and when I go into the slums I felt that I'm no better and I'm sure I would have ended up the same way under the same conditions. To me it's a reminder again of how much we have, how much the things I own can own me, how living distracted by phones, computers, goals, can take away from the gift of interaction with others. The problem is that these feelings can fade and become foggy when I get home. Repetition is the key, a daily reminder of all we have, starting with the basics. Clean water, a light that comes on when the switch is flipped. The ability to feed my children. The mantra I kept in my head was from a little clip from a TED talks I watched on the plane over, "Its not happiness that makes you grateful but gratefulness that makes you happy." Good stuff... Thanks for the experience Mighty Acorn and Kenya. Check out all the pics from the trip on my website. Also videos to come!
