Could I have been anyone other than myself?

We have spent the last few days up in Naivasha, Kenya. Here we took a few tours of national parks in the region like Nakuru National Park and Hell's Gate National Park. Both parks, like much of Kenya, were stunningly beautiful.

We went into Nakuru National Park where I'll be working for my internship and it was simply amazing. We saw a pride of lions, many rhinos, and over 1 and 1/2 million flamingos. It will be really exciting to go there on a daily basis and do some work. Hopefully, I'll even learn a thing or two.

However, the city of Naivasha leaves much to be desired in terms of cleanliness and basic sanitation. Cows walk throughout the town, trash covers much of the roadside, and when it rains there is standing water for days and days. While driving through the city I saw an old man pushing his bike alongside the road. He had the bike loaded down with crates containing different things like plastic bags and a bit of food. After passing him I thought about the Dave Matthews Band song "Dancing Nancies." In the song he sings about how he could have been something else in his life if he'd of taken a left turn instead of taking a right, or how he could of been born someone else. Throughout the lyrics, "Could I have been anyone other than myself?" are sung. After seeing this man, I began to think about these lyrics and how important of a question it is. I was born into a relatively easy lifestyle with many advantages, yet this man was born into a life far more difficult than anything I have experienced. It's just funny the way it is that one can be born into ease, while another is born into hardship.

To further my point, we went to a school in Naivasha yesterday. The school has over 1,000 kids and after meeting with them we got about 2 hours to mix and mingle. I took tons of pictures and after one particular picture a kid about 12 years old came up to me and said, "How much did your camera cost?" I tried to calculate the exchange rate in my head and told him, "It cost about 55,000 schillings." He kind of looked at me awkwardly and said, "You'd of been better off buying cows." I laughed so hard, but here I am in Kenya where they value the cow nearly as high as we Americans value our cars, homes, and other possessions.

So far into the trip, roughly 3 weeks, I haven't really missed anything. Pepsi is hard to come by but if you know which stores have it you can usually stock up on it. The only thing I really have missed is baseball and hot dogs. The hot dogs here are not anything I care to eat unless I have to.

I must be going now. Take care.

Jordan