A dream come true…
… It’s about 4am on the morning we are supposed to arrive in South Africa and I cannot sleep. I’m so incredibly excited to be visiting Africa, to the point where I am beginning to feel tears form in the back of my eyes. It is just an incredible feeling to know that in less then 3 or four hours, we will be arriving in a place that I have wanted to visit my entire life. I’m not just excited about the chance to go on a Safari to see the wild animals and to have the opportunity to go on a “real” wildlife safari. No, believe it or not I am so in shock and thanksgiving that I will finally be able to see with my own eyes the things that I have only heard about or read in news stories. To see this place that has had to go through so much, where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for close to 27 years of his life. The place where my new friend, Desmond Tutu finally found freedom and where there was so much oppression and pain and suffering. To a continent overcome with poverty and tragic conditions that no human being should have to undergo. The racism, the hatred, the hurt that has happened here, and the pain and suffering that still goes on each and every day here. From the genocide in Darfur, to the exploitation in Sierra Lion, to the small societies that suffer through things like female circumcisions, to river blindness, to AIDS, the child soldiers who are abducted from their small towns and forced to commit atrocious acts of violence in the name of rebel fighting, to the million and one other things that happen in this place. Believe it or not, I’m so excited to be here, to see but only some of this with my own eyes, but not for the reasons one would believe.
Believe it or not, I’m happy to be here, because at least in South Africa, for some reason, they seemed to have started off on the right track. They seemed to have done something right. Maybe it was the Truth and reconciliation process, maybe it was the freeing of Nelson Mandela. Maybe it was the solidarity that was created by the many oppressed people that had to live under Apartheid conditions, maybe even visiting the very place where Gandhi had resisted to obey the pass laws that inspired him to lead a movement that freed an entire nation.
More than anything however, it is the fact I am visiting a place not full of devastation and disaster, but a place of hope. Especially south Africa, who had gone through so much, and yet seemed to have come out in a way that is prosperous and forgiving. That people here seem to have been able to go on with their lives, to continue living together after such tremendous strife and grievances. That in this place I am about to go, in the air was this amazing amount of forgiveness, of moving forward and of seeing one another for who they are. The amazing things that have taken place in South Africa are astonishing. The idea of freedom that is so new to so many in South Africa who had never had it before. People, who in my very own lifetime, once were forced to obey laws that pertained to the color of their skin, people who now decades later can say they are truly free. I feel so blessed and honored to be here, but more importantly I feel so humbled by the experience of South Africans to have been able to come together and to live under the now peaceful conditions they do. I’m so excited to see with my own eyes, not the strife and suffering, but rather the true human potential that exists not only in this nation, but this continent. I’m so utterly amazed at the though of stepping off of this ship and seeing with my very own eyes a place that is both haunting and mesmerizing at the same time.
I think not only of the current conditions of Africa, but the historical context that has left this continent shattered and broken. I think of the horrible economic strife the people of this land have had to face. The colonizing and conquering that took the lives of so many, and in my eyes, the worst atrocity being the export of human trafficking through slavery in the Americas and all over the world. I think to myself, I am literally taking the same passage into Africa that millions upon millions of Africans were forced to take out of Africa to lives where they were beaten and persecuted in so many ways. There is a wind blowing in the room right now, an eerie noise of the wind creeping through a tiny crack in the window, and I can’t help but sense and feel reverence for those millions of people who either died or lost their freedom due to the Atlantic slave trade. I can’t help but feel such a personal connection to them, as being my fellow human beings, fellow lovers of the stars.
So in this moment I feel so honored and blessed to be able to have this opportunity to see such a place that has such horrors but also, so much potential, to see with my own eyes this place that I have dreamed about since I was a small boy. The idea of simply stepping onto the ground in South Africa just is so amazing to me and I can’t believe that I have such an opportunity to experience such a thing. I am so thankful to be here, knowing that there are truly millions upon millions of people around the world who I know would love to be doing the things I am doing today. People who might not have access to come here, whether that be financial or transportation or even knowledge, or age. Anything and everything, something I am so blessed to do.
All in all, I am in tears, because it is so beautiful and so touching and so enveloping to know that I am here, in this place and to be able to see with my own eyes this fascinating place.
… It’s about 4am on the morning we are supposed to arrive in South Africa and I cannot sleep. I’m so incredibly excited to be visiting Africa, to the point where I am beginning to feel tears form in the back of my eyes. It is just an incredible feeling to know that in less then 3 or four hours, we will be arriving in a place that I have wanted to visit my entire life. I’m not just excited about the chance to go on a Safari to see the wild animals and to have the opportunity to go on a “real” wildlife safari. No, believe it or not I am so in shock and thanksgiving that I will finally be able to see with my own eyes the things that I have only heard about or read in news stories. To see this place that has had to go through so much, where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for close to 27 years of his life. The place where my new friend, Desmond Tutu finally found freedom and where there was so much oppression and pain and suffering. To a continent overcome with poverty and tragic conditions that no human being should have to undergo. The racism, the hatred, the hurt that has happened here, and the pain and suffering that still goes on each and every day here. From the genocide in Darfur, to the exploitation in Sierra Lion, to the small societies that suffer through things like female circumcisions, to river blindness, to AIDS, the child soldiers who are abducted from their small towns and forced to commit atrocious acts of violence in the name of rebel fighting, to the million and one other things that happen in this place. Believe it or not, I’m so excited to be here, to see but only some of this with my own eyes, but not for the reasons one would believe.
Believe it or not, I’m happy to be here, because at least in South Africa, for some reason, they seemed to have started off on the right track. They seemed to have done something right. Maybe it was the Truth and reconciliation process, maybe it was the freeing of Nelson Mandela. Maybe it was the solidarity that was created by the many oppressed people that had to live under Apartheid conditions, maybe even visiting the very place where Gandhi had resisted to obey the pass laws that inspired him to lead a movement that freed an entire nation.
More than anything however, it is the fact I am visiting a place not full of devastation and disaster, but a place of hope. Especially south Africa, who had gone through so much, and yet seemed to have come out in a way that is prosperous and forgiving. That people here seem to have been able to go on with their lives, to continue living together after such tremendous strife and grievances. That in this place I am about to go, in the air was this amazing amount of forgiveness, of moving forward and of seeing one another for who they are. The amazing things that have taken place in South Africa are astonishing. The idea of freedom that is so new to so many in South Africa who had never had it before. People, who in my very own lifetime, once were forced to obey laws that pertained to the color of their skin, people who now decades later can say they are truly free. I feel so blessed and honored to be here, but more importantly I feel so humbled by the experience of South Africans to have been able to come together and to live under the now peaceful conditions they do. I’m so excited to see with my own eyes, not the strife and suffering, but rather the true human potential that exists not only in this nation, but this continent. I’m so utterly amazed at the though of stepping off of this ship and seeing with my very own eyes a place that is both haunting and mesmerizing at the same time.
I think not only of the current conditions of Africa, but the historical context that has left this continent shattered and broken. I think of the horrible economic strife the people of this land have had to face. The colonizing and conquering that took the lives of so many, and in my eyes, the worst atrocity being the export of human trafficking through slavery in the Americas and all over the world. I think to myself, I am literally taking the same passage into Africa that millions upon millions of Africans were forced to take out of Africa to lives where they were beaten and persecuted in so many ways. There is a wind blowing in the room right now, an eerie noise of the wind creeping through a tiny crack in the window, and I can’t help but sense and feel reverence for those millions of people who either died or lost their freedom due to the Atlantic slave trade. I can’t help but feel such a personal connection to them, as being my fellow human beings, fellow lovers of the stars.
So in this moment I feel so honored and blessed to be able to have this opportunity to see such a place that has such horrors but also, so much potential, to see with my own eyes this place that I have dreamed about since I was a small boy. The idea of simply stepping onto the ground in South Africa just is so amazing to me and I can’t believe that I have such an opportunity to experience such a thing. I am so thankful to be here, knowing that there are truly millions upon millions of people around the world who I know would love to be doing the things I am doing today. People who might not have access to come here, whether that be financial or transportation or even knowledge, or age. Anything and everything, something I am so blessed to do.
All in all, I am in tears, because it is so beautiful and so touching and so enveloping to know that I am here, in this place and to be able to see with my own eyes this fascinating place.
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