We have heard over and over how much folks back here felt they were part of the trip to Zambia. It is a joy to know that people see that this work is a team effort. This blog entry comes from one team member who participated at home. We invite you to send along a blog entry if you wish.
My Life in Africa…
It’s 3AM and I can’t sleep. I walk downstairs, flip open my laptop computer, and click on the Living Compassion website’s Africa blog. From there, I am immediately transported to Africa. I see sangha whom I know and love, and there are new faces of people I have never met, and yet I know I love them too. I read story after story of amazing coincidences, community cooperation, courageous children, love, strength, graciousness, and soul. An hour goes by, and then two hours, as I read every word and take in the smallest detail of every picture. I see what the Africa team sees. I cry and marvel at the amazing stories they tell. And then in a quiet instant: I am an African.
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I am the child holding the monk’s hand as we walk the length of the water pipe. I am the young girl who steps forward to sing my solo in my best school clothes. I am the potter bent over my painstakingly made precious gifts. I am the woman moving effortlessly with the basket on my head and my baby resting across my chest. I am working alongside my neighbors digging a ditch, pouring cement, and fastening a gate. I am the mother and father of hungry children, and I am the teacher of hungry children, and I am a hungry child.
All the while, I sit in my pajamas on my stool in my cozy American city home, fighting the sleep that starts to come now because I want to read more and more about MY life in Africa.
As I near the end of the blog, and come back to my little cozy city home, it occurs to me that I have just experienced participation. I have been part of the African team, but I have also been part of Africa, and now Africa is part of me. And time and distance lose all meaning, and differences fade, and there is only the interconnectedness I feel.
It’s 5AM and I need to go back to sleep. Tomorrow I will go about my American city life. And Africa will be with me.