Alexandra: Learned So Far

While on this trip, we have been learning a lot. We have visited many different cultures, tribes and lives. Of all of the things we have learned, I chose to talk about water, life lessons and how people are alike all over the world.

Water is a necessity of all living things on the planet. Of all of Earth’s water, only about 3% is fresh and of use to humans. Most of the fresh water is out of our reach and locked up in glaciers in Antarctica. Of all of the fresh water on the planet, a lot of it is dirty. We have witnessed people bathing, washing clothes and even drinking that water. Water is water and everyone needs it in order to survive, so they utilize the water available even if it is bad for them. Clean water is the next global problem, and we have to do something about it.

While in South Africa, we learned an important life lesson from Nelson Mandela about reconciliation. Nelson Mandela was finally let out of prison at Robben Island after thirty years of punishment for speaking his opinion and because of the color of his skin. He didn’t come out with vengeance, he came out with forgiveness. Nelson Mandela knew that retaliating would get him nowhere, instead he took initiative to try to help end apartheid. Since he didn’t fight back, he helped the problems in South Africa, but if Mandela had retaliated, it would have been very different. We learned that retaliation doesn’t get us anywhere, we actually have to do something about the problem to fix it.

People are all alike, despite their vast differences. We have been to many villages and schools around the world and all the people like the same things. In Greece, Kawaza, Jerusalem and Patakancha we played soccer with the children, all of them enjoyed it since it is their favorite things to do. Another similarity is that most of these groups of people do a lot of walking, be it from home to school, or from home to the marketplace, tribes and villages do a lot of walking. From all different corners of the Earth, people are all alike, even if they don’t look or act the same.

Already in just seven months we have learned much about the world and it’s people, especially the importance of water, learning life lessons and similarities across cultures. In the next five months, I hope to learn as much as I possibly can. Friends have been saying that there is no better way to learn, than experience. Textbooks can teach us a lot, but it takes experience to really let it soak in. We have learned much with much more to come.