Sacrifices

        I’m feeling a little bit down today.  I love my friends here but their inconsistencies and ignorance sometimes throws me off.  They talk constantly about wanting to start non-profits and help the underprivileged yet they go through internet time like it’s free, some have already spent over $500 on it in the short time we’ve been here.   That time and money spent surfing facebook could have easily changed the lives of people in many of the countries we will be visiting.  Having motivation to save the world is great but you need to make changes every day and not just when you can put it on your resume. 
        Next Sunday, a week from today, we dock in Ghana.  Ghana is one of the countries I have been most looking forward to as I am part of a small group going to the Senase Village to participate in a homestay.  In the village we will have three days of drum and dance lessons, visit the children in their schools, make dinner with our “families” and help with work on the farms.  We will sleep with the villagers right in their homes – we essentially become a part of the village for three days.  To get to this village we will have to drive seven hours out into the country, leaving before sunrise. 
This will hopefully be one of the most amazing experiences of my life – the people who have done it in the past said it was absolutely incredible and I feel lucky to be part of the small group going.  I assumed this was the type of thing people would want to do in Ghana – cultural immersions, connecting with the locals and really trying to change our perception of the Global South.  I found out today, however, that not everyone had this idea.
        The majority of my friends are taking a tram to a beach resort about an hour away from where the boat docks. They will stay in a villa, have free wifi, go swimming, tan, get drunk, and watch for leatherback turtles. Obviously, this sounds amazing, but ten years from now which memory will be more meaningful, more relevant?
        Taking a vacation always sounds wonderful but will be nothing compared to what I’m going to do. That being said, it’s hard for me to continuously feel left out of all of the fun adventures and pictures because I’m trying to really understand where I am and what it means.  I feel left out sitting around during the planning and even more so afterwards when there’s new drama, new relationships, new jokes and I’m not a part of any of it.
        Whenever I have dilemmas like this I use the 10-10-10 rule. I think about how this will make me feel in ten minutes, ten months and ten years.  In ten minutes I will feel how I am feeling now, lonely and sad that I’m missing out on the “fun.”  In ten months, however, I will have had a completely eye-opening experience that changes the way I view the American lifestyle and the way I was raised while everyone else’s tans will be long gone.  And ten years from now… well, I guess we’ll have to see.