it is getting closer and closer to our return home to the states. i have been thinking about how it is going to be transitiong back into the swing of things back home. air conditioner, faster internet, traffic rules, paved roads, advanced medicine…that is just the tip of the iceberg.
we havent been here that long. two weeks. but i feel like i have been here a lot longer. i think now that is because every day we see so much and learn so much that each day feels like a week. after a while it becomes overwhelming. i knew before i came here that i would see misfourtune, sickness, and poverty. i knew before i cam here that i am lucky in a lot of ways to have been born in america. i knew before i came here that this would be an eye opening experience. i knew all of these things. but being here. being submerged into a culture that is not only foreign in language, but foreign in living is much different than hearing it from some one else. all of the books, movies, and stories could not have prepared me enough. yes, they helped. they helped me understand the history and culture. but no, they did not help me prepare for the feelings i personally would experience. and i can comfortably say that for the whole group. though we have all had different emotional roller coasters for different reasons, we have still had them.
i look forward to going home. but leaving here only inspires me to return as fast as i can. there is something clensing about constantly being away from luxury. there is sometyhing humbling about living amoungst people who have endured and perservered through so much hardship. it is a feeling i dont think can be replicated back in the states.
on that note, we are on our way to vietnam.
“lee-ah-howie”
(good bye!)