Attached is an article I wrote. It is lengthy at reaching 1200 words but if you have time please enjoy.
Stuck in a college classroom, barely surviving, and regretting every decision I had made for the last 20 years, I was unmotivated and dissatisfied with life. To most, my life was the quintessential college experience. I was the in the best sorority, with the best boyfriend, at the best Southern California school, studying the best major, in the best college. But best wasn’t cutting it. I was miserable and in need of a change.
My older sister, Ashley, had just graduated from a nearby university and her schedule allowed her to travel to Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia with a non-profit organization focused on leadership development and humanitarian efforts. As the leadership seminar went on for a week, she snuck away to take a look at the only local hospital servicing the 600,000 people in that region and she was stunned. Within ten days of experiencing less than ideal conditions, she made the decision to change the direction of her life and dive into the non-profit world of medical and health relief for developing countries. One month after returning home, she began her own non-profit, Streams of Life International. After three months she had SOLI’s focus, board, and goals set out. Within six months, SOLI was recognized by the state of California and the Federal Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization. Just one year after her first trip, she invited two doctors, a paramedic, several construction specialists, gathered $30,000 worth of medical supplies, and set out to revisit the people of Ethiopia and provide relief. She also invited a photographer to record the events of the trip.
That photographer was me.
Unknown to me, my sister hoped my superficial view of the world would be impacted by what I photographed, as much as hers had been on her visit the prior year. Three months and three thousand dollars later, I couldn’t help but shake my head with wonder as I sat in a dirty hotel room in Assosa, Ethiopia. My hotel consisted of a mat as a bed and a bucket with cold water over the toilet to act as a shower. The walls were this hideous lime green color and electrical wiring was exposed everywhere. My immediate surroundings should have been my first clue of the long day that lay ahead of me.
As soon as I stepped out the door, grimy, smelly, and persistent kids, chattering in a language quite foreign to me, immediately surrounded me. They grabbed onto every finger of my hand and began walking with me as I made my way to the place our group was going to meet. The only thing running through my head was, “where is my sanitizer?” When the infested children were not clamoring to hold my hand, or begging for water, money, or gum, their parents were pushing me and calling me “foreigner” and “white person”. To say the least, I was overwhelmed.
I found solace in behind my camera lens as everything swirled around me. I didn’t want to get too close to what initially appeared to me as insanity. It just felt easier to observe everything as a picture rather than to engage in the devastation. I could feel my sister watching me and within minutes, she pulled me out from behind my camera lens and stuck me at a desk in a make-shift medical clinic to handle patient intake. I was known as “Doctor Noah” and it was my responsibility to work with translators to find out each patient’s name, medical history, and why they wanted to see the doctors.
Men and a few women waited in long lines to get into the clinic. Many of them had never seen a doctor in their entire lives. I was so unprepared for the disease and sickness of these desperate people: bullet wounds with the bullet still in the chest, goiters, infections, Aids, tuberculosis, malaria, complaints of worms in the head, and bruises from head to toe. My heart broke as each person shared his or her story of pain and suffering. Their needs were so huge and several were beyond the scope of our meager clinic. However, I was so impacted by how grateful the people were just to have someone show them some tender care. Was my sister a genius? To me, that day she was, because by sitting me at a dirty desk in the middle of Ethiopia, Africa, having me hear the stories of people so less fortunate than me, “ruined” me for good.
From that trip I learned that Ethiopia’s quality of life can be improved greatly by awareness and education. 85% of all diseases can be prevented by basic sanitation. That means by teaching the children something as simple as washing their hands could change the average life span from 40 to 60. Yaregal Aysheshem, President of Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia said, “The states problem, number one is health. You see without good health the people or a person cannot do everything. So in our area we have no infrastructure, health infrastructure. So because of this a lot of mothers and children die.” There is a widespread practice of harmful traditions against woman that is dehumanizing and discriminating. They are considered as living commodities. Rape and early marriage are the most prevalent problems school aged girls are suffering from. Because most of the girls are not old and developed enough to have intercourse it is causing severe health problems that can include infections to the womb and HIV.
Now we see everything that’s going wrong
With the World and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it.
John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” has become the anthem of today’s generation. We seem to spend our days waiting on the world to change rather than realizing we can change the world. We have so much, and yet, we give so little. We can chat on our cell phone with a friend in Japan, watch live video of penguins in Antarctica, spend a weekend in London in between midterms, and travel to Africa in one overnight flight. But when it comes to making a difference, we don’t make the time or perhaps we fear we don’t really count in the grand scheme of life. Is it possible that my generation is a generation of benchwarmers? Are we perfecting standing on the sidelines for the game of our lives?
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the World to change
USA Today labels us as young, smart and brash. While Clayton Collins of the Christian Science Monitor gives credit to social network websites like myspace and facebook popularity to our “all about me” attitude and that our generation is showing symptoms of elevated narcissism. Jody Turner of CultureofFuture.com says that we are hard to define, “Most kids coming out of a college are looking at ways of contributing but not giving up their material goals.” It has also been said that we are among the hardest working generation in comparison to our parents and grandparents.
One day our generation
Is going to rule the population
This generation can make a difference. There is more to life than fulfilling our selfish and shallow desires. We think we are living the ideal life, but when we wake up in the morning, something is missing. There has to be more! Rather than waiting on the world to change we can be the change the world sees. It is our generation’s turn to step up and to lead and it doesn’t have to mean solving global warming or finding the cure for cancer. It can be as simple as listening to a broken man tell you he has worms in his head.
I might not have changed Ethiopia, but it changed me. And now I am resolved to not let my story end here. Change the world, don’t wait for it to change you.
