One month to go!

Today marks the one-month mark until I leave for Africa! I have gotten all of my shots, applied for my travel visa, and booked my flights - I honestly cannot believe how quickly it is approaching! As my departure draws near I am filled with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and exhilaration. It is a surreal feeling to know that you are about to embark on something so HUGE.

I read this earlier this week and I wanted to share it. It is a quote taken from an interview with Henry Rollins about his passion for travel and how it has humbled him:

"I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is.  Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people come back and go, Ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on." http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-interviews/interview-with-henry-rollins-punk-rock-travel-20111101/

Perspective. I think that I am most looking forward to gaining a new perspective. To travel to a country where you see so many people who have so little, but are still willing and able to give. As Rollins so eloquently states:

" The fact that you can go to a place like Vietnam where we just toxified, burned to the ground and defoliated that country to the point where they’re still having developmental problems with kids from Agent Orange four generations later and they bend over backwards to be friendly. And you go to parts of Africa like Southern Sudan where they’re literally walking over the bullet casings from a 22-year war and they go out of their way to make sure you’re fed. These journeys have made me appreciate the resiliency and buoyancy of homo sapiens."  


While we are busy worrying about our plans for the long-weekend, or our to-do lists, there are millions of people all over the world who are focused solely on whether they will survive today. It seems absolutely crazy to me that this is still how it is in across the globe. In the year 2012 we still have not found a way to join together, with all members of the human race, and help to lift each other up. I am going to Kenya to help people - but I know without a doubt that, in fact, it is going to be the other way around. I know that through the people I will get to meet, the places I will see, and experiences I will have, my eyes will be opened and it will be my perspective that is expanded. I think that is one distinction that is really important for me to be clear on. I have a story to share, I am a teacher, I love children, and I want to make a difference in the world - but I also know that more so it will be me who will learn and grow by being there.

In preparing for our trip everyone in the group was assigned mini-research projects on various aspects of life in Kenya. My group is researching music and dance in Kenya. As I began to research the music I needed a brief history lesson on Kenya. In the 1890s, with the onset of colonization, the British entered the country on a mission to 'help' the Kenyan people to become more 'civilized'. As a result, and because of the refusal of the British and the majority of Christian missionaries to adapt to Kenya, never mind adopt some of its traditions, this meant that traditional societies were forced to abandon their old beliefs, customs and traditions. Music, of course, is one of those traditions that has been all but lost.
The importance of music and dance and the role that it plays in the maintenance of traditional culture cannot be overemphasized. It was precisely because of this that music and dance were singled out for extermination by missionaries and colonial authorities. Normally, in a society where old ceremonies, songs and dances, are no longer relevant, they will cease to exist, and will be replaced with something more appropriate. But the problem in the Kenyan context is not that the old ways have changed, but that the old ways have been destroyed.

It is a tragedy that so much rich and vibrant cultural history has been wiped from existence because of the agenda of a certain group of people. This honestly horrified me, and I quickly realized just how important it is to me that to be very clear about my intentions for this trip. I want to learn and be immersed in the culture - not turn it into mine; I want to share my love for dance - and experience dance  and music in the land where it was born; I want to connect with people - because at the end of the day we are all in bodies on this planet right now for a reason. The power that comes from joining hands and working together is unmatched. I am on a mission - but not that kind of mission! My mission is to connect people with their hearts, which in turn will allow us all to connect - and once that happens it will be magical...