On the Road with RoxAnna: Day Seven
May 6, 2017We humans are a funny species
Traveling to places you have never been before can be exciting, inspiring and enlightening. Seeing and experiencing other cultures gives you a whole new outlook on the world, life and humans. We tend to get wrapped up in our little bubbles and just see our little pieces of the world. When you travel outside of your bubble you can be surprised by what you see.
As I look around at the people of Senegal and see how they live, it is easy to see why Americans can have the reputation of being spoiled. Quite frankly, a lot of us are and we sometimes can take all we have for granted. As a young girl I would often have those philosophical moments of wonder of why was I so lucky to be born in America and more specifically, California? And while I know many people think California is a kooky state (and sometimes so do I!) I still feel lucky to have been raised there. Traveling to a place like Senegal makes me wonder about that question again and while I am grateful for this experience, I am also grateful for all the amenities I have at home.
People all over this planet live in different ways and not just survive but are happy. Trust me, I know a lot, are not, too. Here I’ve watched these kids play in the street, dirty clothes, no shoes, and while they kick around their deflated soccer ball, they are laughing and smiling. When is the last time you saw a group of kids play in the street with no shoes on? Other than at the beach, I am not sure I have. We joke about “in the old days” we didn’t come home from playing with our friends ‘til the street lights came on. Here there are barely any street lights at all. Kids are roaming around the streets all day, at home they are in playgrounds kicking around a fairly new ball in most likely fairly new shoes. Again, I know this is not how all kids in America live and many still struggle to get their bare necessities but it is nothing like these kids here.
Kids are not the only ones different, the grown ups are too. Here is one story of how we look at the world so differently. Yesterday at lunch we were served fish and rice, a whole fish, head, tail and all. As a group of us starting eating and picking carefully through the bones to get to the meat, someone at our table said, Oh, Oh, look at this! We all looked up and a roar of laughter from us all could be heard from our table. He was holding a large fish hook in his fingers that had come out of the fish. Unbelievable! However, not for here, it seemed to all of us, that it probably occurred more often than we thought. Then someone said, could you imagine if that happened at home. Immediately, we all thought of a big old lawsuit, the media attention and the large payday someone would receive because they found a fish hook in their fish lunch.
We humans are a funny species. Some would find a fish hook in our fish and be thinking about a quick retirement plan from our winnings of the lawsuit we would surely win. Others would think, well, of course there is a fish hook in my fish, how else would this fish have been caught? I mean, it’s a fish. But then again, lots of people in their little bubble think the fish in the fish counter at the market just magically appear there. At some point the fish has to get caught. If a hook in your fish surprised you, how would you react? Maybe just be happy you had a fish to eat.
May you be happily surprised by something today,
RoxAnna