Check-in Three: Hunger & Poverty

This past summer, I travelled to Vietnam with other students from the board and Habitat for Humanity. We were going there to build two homes for two families in need. I had the greatest experience of my entire life there, and I wish there was a way to relive the entire thing again. I met so many amazing people, in Canada and in Vietnam. I made long lasting friendships with all of the people I went with. I also discovered a new side of me that I thought as a teenager I would never see. Humility. I came back more embarrassed than anything else, for the soul purpose of that I whine and complain about meaningless things. Things that to a Vietnamese person would be everyday chores that aren't even difficult. "Emily can you put the dishes away?" "Emily, can you bring me a glass of water?" "Em, I'd rather you not drive today, the roads are too icy." There are a couple things wrong with the fact that I was complaining. I'm lucky I even have dishes that need putting away. I'm lucky that we have clean water, in the comfort of my own home. I'm lucky that I have a car to drive around, and that I have opportunities to do activities with my friends, and be a kid. I came back a new person, with my head on straight, priorities in check, and a new respect for the Vietnamese people. They are hard-working, loving people, and should be role models to North America and even the rest of the world.

This trip to Asia gave me something else great as well. After years of agonizing over what I want to do with my life and what to take in university, (my dad dropped out after one year because he didn't know what he wanted to do) I found something I was passionate about. I wanted to learn more about these people, learn how hunger and poverty in the world could be ended, solved. I wanted everything to do with Global Development, the development and struggle of third-world/developing countries. This program doesn't only offer an excellent and interesting curriculum, but also the chance to take co-op trips to countries around the world to build. This is the perfect program for me.

Reading this novel has allowed me to go back to my amazing memories in Vietnam. One particular section of the novel especially reminds me of it. Amir and Farid are on their way to Farid's brother's home to stay the night. While they are there, Amir notices that they are very poor, and Farid says something to him about how he's not a true Afghan because he's never experiences poverty.

"Let me imagine, Agha sahib. You probably lived in a big two- or three-story house with a nice backyard that your gardener filled with flowers and fruit trees. All gated, of course. Your father drove an American car. You had servants, probably Hazaras. Your parents hired workers to decorate the house for the fancy mehmanis they threw, so their friends would come over to drink and boast about their travles to Europe or America." (244)

"That's the real Afghanistan, Agha sahib. That's the Agfhanistan I know. You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it." (245)

While they are at Wahid's home, his wife makes them dinner and says to Amir,

"I'm sorry we can't offer you meat. Only the Taliban can afford meat now." (250)

Amir thinks about this as he eats is meal,

"As I ate, I noticed Wahid's boys, all three thin with dirt-caked faces and short-cropped brown hair under their skullcaps, stealing furtive glances at my digital watch. The youngest whispered something in his brother's ear. The brother nodded, didn't take his eyes off of my watch." (251)

"I now understood why the boys hadn't shown any interest in the watch. They hadn't been staring at the watch at all. They'd been staring at my food." (254)

"I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress." (254)

Reading quotes like these reminds me of my trip in a bunch of ways. I'm getting so excited to go to university in the fall just thinking about it. I never thought I'd ever find anything I genuinely wanted to study, until I went on that trip. I'm so glad that reading The Kite Runner has brought up such great memories. I realize those quotes are not cheerful, but they remind me of what cheerful people the Vietnamese were, despite what they had. I'm sure many of them were happier with their lives than I was with mine. I went to Vietnam a brat, spoiled, and with an attitude and came back with pride, respect, patience and hard work. I'm sure Amir is going through the same thing right now.

It's funny to me how polar opposite the world can be. Not just how North America and Asia are so different in economy, but the attitudes of the people that live there. It's amazing that I went to Vietnam to help someone else, and instead, I learned more than I could have ever imagined.

So thank you Kite Runner, for that amazing feeling that you brought back to me.