Dog Days of Summer...

Adjustment to coming back home was at first, pretty easy.  After nearly 24 hours in the sky and 50 hours of being awake (I couldn't sleep on the plane) we found ourselves at home.  The thick Missouri heat made us long for the sunny, 80 degree days and African breeze.

My Super-Dog  :)

But, we were home... back to our friends, our families, our pets...  our house, air conditioning, warm water, Shakespeare's Pizza and Andy's Frozen Custard.  (Yes, I have a weakness for those.)

We all adjusted to our sleep schedules, ate our favorite foods to excess, told our friends all our stories, and answered question after question.  We sorted out the trinkets that we bought and gave to our family or friends.  We laid in bed at night and thought about the times we had, the faces we saw, and the tears we felt but, our cheeks turned upward with the smiles of knowing something good was done halfway around the world... and we contributed to it.

But as the days went by and time kept ticking, the thoughts didn't stop as they do from the typical vacation or business trip.  Everywhere you turn, there is a reminder.  A reminder of something or someone you encountered... its an amenity that you took for granted (like hot water), a great job, a car with windows and air conditioning.  A blue sky and clean air that makes you feel free and happy, no matter what it is, you suddenly realize how much you have that has so often been taken for granted.

Earlier this year, I started into the world of multi-sports... duathlons and triathlons.  I had taken a month off training and such to make the Africa trip, but this past weekend, I had another triathlon.  I was a little nervous.  I felt mentally unprepared to swim a half mile followed by the bike and run.  I had been out of my "groove" for a month and this was the longest competitive swim I'd done yet..  I told myself I could do it and realized the challenge before me was minuscule compared to the challenges I had just witnessed in Africa, their challenge simply to live, and that the challenge I had this day was a personal choice.  I remember as I swam, the brutal sun beat down on my head through the rubber swim cap.  With each breath I took... as I looked up, I could see the sun rays as they sheered through the puffy white clouds, with deep gray centers.  My thoughts were that of "thanks."  Thanks for the world I was living in, thanks for the physical ability to do such a thing, thanks for the freedom, free time, friends, family and other support for such a hobby... once again realizing that the people I just met really didn't live in a world that provided opportunity for a "hobby."  The same thoughts raced through my mind again and again as I watched the asphalt roll under the tires of my bike and I listened to the sound of fine gravel under my feet as I trudged through the run in the heat.  My only request was for God to let me have a good enough time that I could make it to church by the 11:00 service. 

Wow... I really have an easy life.

While the people in Africa were happy people, they had so little.  They had "life"... and often for a limited time.  Sickness, or injury could end the one fragile thing they had.  So many things that we take for granted... in "our" world.  The only fundamental difference between my world and theirs is "where" God put us on this earth.  Simply, where we were born.  It doesn't matter if it is in Africa, the hills of South America, a jungle in Asia, or an island in the South Pacific... too many children are missing out on what they deserve in those places.

That wasn't a choice made by us, but rather at a much higher level.  If you don't believe that, then you must believe it was science, simple chance, probability or heck, even aliens? Whatever the case, it was in no part a choice made by any of us actually living it.  Maybe you call it "luck."  Either way, opportunity is limited for some and I realize more and more that we need to do what we can to provide others some simple "opportunity."  Opportunity to grow, to become educated, to be able to make decisions about their future, and their destiny... because everyone should have the simplest human rights that I have.  To be what they want, to change themselves the way I can choose.  To grow mentally and spiritually.  Without some type of education, where would any of us be?  Did a day ever exist in our modern lives when we didnt have the opportunity to have a basic education?  No.  It was given to each and every one of us.  Some of our grand parents or great grandparents possibly had limited access to it, but our generations progressed, knowing that education was fundamental, we as a society decided that educating our young was a fundamental right, need and mandate.

I'm reading the book "Three Cups of Tea," the story of Greg Mortenson.  Its the story of a mountaineer, who was raised by missionary parents who took him to Tanzania as a young boy where he grew up.  He is somewhat of a strange fellow to say the least, but during a failed mountaineering expedition on K2 in Pakistan, he spent time in a mountain village and found the children to have no school... to be sitting in the cold, scratching with sticks in the dirt trying to learn.  The tells the story of how building these schools in the most remote locations of the world changes people's paths in life.  I'd suggest you read it... it might help you to wrap your mind around what some people in the world are missing and the obstacles and barriers that stand in their way.

It doesn't seem realistic to many of us living the bountiful lives we live, in such a great place... but it is a harsh reality to so many people around the world.  Its not a matter of politics, or religion... its not a matter of "helping our own" before we help others... its about lending simple opportunity to human beings who are willing to help and grow themselves if equipped with the basic tools.  It all begins with basic education and literacy. 

Think about it and do what you can... be the change, make a difference and sleep good at night.

Thanks again to Be The Change Volunteers for bringing this into my life.

--Dusty