Thankful is a very broad word, I am thankful for so many things such as family, friends, etc. One thing that stands out most to me is my opportunity I was given to travel to Rwanda, Africa and enjoy a vacation but also serve the less fortunate.
My dad is on the board of a non profit organization that gives some of the best and brightest students of Rwanda and surrounding countries the opportunity to go to college in the united states with full ride scholarship. So me and my dad take a trip to Rwanda every 2 years. Everytime I go I grow such love for the people of this country. With the genecide effect on the country you would expect the people to be bitter and violent but Rwanda is filled with some of the most precious and peaceful people you could ever imagine. The overwhelming feeling of humility was upon me during the entire trip.
As I would walk through villages and meet the little children my heart would burst with compassion, their smiles and fulfillment with such little they had was so crazy to me. We take advantage of the things we have in america such as food, water and clean clothes but they don’t even have those things much less have a roof over their head. As I would walk into one of the villagers home I noticed the soot on the walls, which is from cooking on an open fire inside the mud house. I quickly realized how awful that is for a person to breathe in such smoke. I looked over and noticed there was a small cot made for the home owners grandson whom was only 5 years old. Not just a regular cot you would see in america but a cot made out of sticks and a thin blanket with holes. That little boy has been breathing in that awful air and it made me realize we don’t even think about how much we have compared to those people in a third world country.
When we arrived to one of the villages we visited we were walking through the main strip of homes and I noticed a little girl dancing, laughing and constantly trying to get our attention. She was the most joy filled little girl I had seen, she would just come up to us a hug our legs, for the rest of the day she was attached to me at the hip. The more I saw the difference in their lives compared to mine I almost felt guilty for the things I had and all the things I take for granted. We never think about the difference of our lives compared to theirs and it’s easy to not pay attention to it but we cant forget how lucky we are to have the life we live. You constantly have to remind yourself of how thankful we should be. In summary this experience truly taught me how important it is to be THANKFUL.
