Day 15
Day 15 Kigali – A little bit of reflection
I was supposed to get 5 guys to write their impressions of the trip so far, and their expectations of the journey to come, but trying to achieve that has proven more difficult than pulling teeth. Day 15 was a rest day in Kigali, and every body took full advantage. Everyone was off doing their own thing, whether it was sitting around all day sleeping, or going on a mission to explore the city.
The other day, a friend of mine asked me what I felt like about the Africa trip so far, so I decided to post exactly what I wrote her. It’s not meant to sound pessemistic or negative, nor am I trying to bash anyone or anything. What I wrote is just what flowed off the tip of my toungue at that very moment which is about as good as a perspective as anyone will get on how I feel about some of these very wonderful and eye opening experiences so far.
I did add all the photos from the previous blogs, and a very good reflections post from the riders will be up for day 19.
Sometimes I feel like touring a place like Africa is like going to a zoo. You see what you want to see, and you ignore the things you don’t . When you’re there you feel so bad for the animals who fell victim to circumstance yet when you’re at home and enjoying your lavish lifestyle, you don’t think twice about those things you just so recently sympathized with. It feels like there are people who help, but just many more who’d prefer to only watch and not get their hands dirty.
I love socializing with the people that live here, a lot of them are wonderful and so very curious about you and where you come from. The other day I chatted with two guys who initially were trying to hussle me to buy some goods from them, and when I nicely (and logically) explained to them that I didn’t need or want it, they kindly transitioned from sales persons to conversationalists. We talked about South African education, American education, how that in turn relates to income, and also about how they feel about people who don’t work. I think a lot of people approach street sales men and women with a lot of hostility as if they are entitled to not be bothered by someone trying to make a living. I try to acknowledge their situation, smile, and say “no thank you” and most of the time they move on. I think there is a lot less racial tension here, it’s white and black, it’s not white vs. black like it seems to be back in South Africa. The other day a police officer referred to me as “brotha” and another young man in Rwanda was explaining to me how we were all brothers even if i was born in South Africa. We’re all “Africans” he said, I thought to myself, ” yeah you’re right, we’re all just human beings trying to find happiness”. The women are amazing in a sense that they are the harder workers and even the men admit to that, it’s just incredible how different the gender roles are in contrast to the 50/50 lifestyle that we have with such roles at home.
I think the only difference between these people and us is that they live a basic life consisting of only the basic of needs. I think Maslov had it right, once you have everything you need, then you start persuing everything that you want. Most of these people work to get food, work to get shelter, hope to stay healthy, but have no time to think about life like I do, and in a sense I wonder if that’s such a bad thing at all. A lot of these people seem live in conditions to what almost anyone would consider poverty, but I almost want to say that it’s disgraceful to judge someone’s social welfare with a comparison to the amount of stuff that I own. I can’t call someone poor because they live in a house smaller than mine, or because they don’t wear shoes. Poor only exists when there is someone more wealthy to compare it to. Just like “you can’t miss what you’ve never had” I always ask myself “is it okay to intrude into these peoples lives only because our view of a “quality” life is significantly different from theirs? Is it okay that we throw money at problems and pretend that will help them go away, or use religion into the picture and tell them that praying will mend their misfortunes? ” These are just questions that I ask.
A big question that I always ask myself is if you’re going to “Save Africa” how are you going to do it in a proactive way? So that no body gets self relient on the aid that they are given? I figured it’s not such an easy question to answer, but one thing that I have concluded to myself is that we cant take first world mindsets to solve third world problems. We need to approach it from a smaller level and work from there. We need to find something that empowers the people and their community toward an improved future (whatever that may be to their standard) and make it so that as a whole they drive to those goals. I think if we want to contribute to helping people in need we should only support and balance them on their journey, not carry or push them. Helping too much can be a disservice to anybody and it’s something to be aware of from a personal oppinion. I think an emphasis on education and an improvement on infrastructure would be a good start both which have many underlying benefits.
I think about such things from time to time, but they’re really not questions with distinct answers. I enjoy traveling here because it changes the way I think and feel about the world and I from what I’ve heard from some of these guys, it’s had the same effect on them too. Africa is so far out of the norm that writing and some photos will only fill you in on about a third of all the incredible things there are to discover. The roads are their rivers, they bring life to their communities but in turn they bring life to those who travel them.
