Thursday, March 4, 2010

Keeping perspective

Every now and then I need to take a step back, look through some photos or just take a day to look at everything around us, and get a fresh perspective on Kibaale. In fact it’s sadly easy to adjust and let yourself become okay with the way life is for everyone here. We shouldn’t ever let ourselves become adapted to the difficulties of daily life, never let ourselves say ‘ no big deal’ to anything we see, or use the justification of someone’s relative comforts in comparison to another as a reason to not help. We shouldn’t become so familiar with people and being in a strange place that we stop smiling or greeting people we don’t know just because we’re tired. We shouldn’t let the thought cross our minds that a lack of education could make someone’s opinion less valid. We shouldn’t become so full of ourselves to ever say that we have a difficult life.

When it comes down to it, we have a choice, and those we’ve come to help do not. I’m so glad to be here, but I still have days where I get caught in the “woe is me, this is hard” mental game. It’s times like this that I take the step back I’m talking about, give myself a good smack (maybe two), and am hopefully able to quickly move on and get back in gear.

Here’s a random sample of everyday photos I’ve been staring at for the past thirty minutes… hopefully they can give whoever’s reading this a bit of perspective too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Sean and Jamie

Thanks for the good reminder! You guys are doing an awesome job there. It isn't easy as you see the hurt and the desperation that isn't too far from the friendly "Goodmorning Uncle Sean - "Well done Aunty Jamie". It is not easy, but God will give you the grace to face each day, one day at a time! Hang in there, we are praying for you both!

Barry and Jen