5/6/11
Even get the feeling you'd be a different person if you were given a different name? Are we living up to everything our parents intended when they first caught sight of us? Increasingly kids are given names of great and well-known people. Names you hear on the radio and see scrawled across headlines. Understandably so most parents hold big dreams for their newborn, and adorns their child with the most meaningful names.
One sunny afternoon I give a futbol to a few kids and unintentionally divert the United Nations from their daily chores of fetching water. Charity was the strongest and most mature of them all. She called for attention, respect, delegation of the game, and in return she gave each child a chance to play. She made sure to tell me who wasn't playing nice. That's when Osama came in. He had a lot of energy, too much for the younger kids, and was accused of playing "too rough". Clinton, on the other hand was just too nice for the rest of the group. He hung low with his big smile and waited patiently until the ball was passed to him. All the while Kibaki generally stood to the side and yelled out his own name occasionally.
After a while I stood back and began to watch these kids interact with each other. I began to understand who needed codling after a fight, and who got up and brushed themselves off. It felt like I was reading the World News section of any daily newspaper. Of course I know nothing about this child name Osama, and Charity may have been more demanding than her name suggests, but it made me consider how much our name plays a destiny in our future. Who would I be if I were named Hope? Or been born a male, of royalty, in poverty, or with a different color skin? The child Clinton may be far from Little Rock, how much of that will determine his life?
1 comment:
My name is Jackie Rakers and I am a junior at Aurora University. I found your blog through peacecorpsjournals.com and have enjoyed reading your posts. As a member of the honors program I am currently conducting research that will be compiled into my senior thesis and presented at the university’s Undergraduate Research Conference. I have chosen write my thesis on the educational systems of various sub-Saharan African countries, the problems that they face, and ways that education and access to it can be improved. I am also interested in teaching abroad once I graduate in 2013 and would like to get the perspective of US citizens who are currently working in education in Africa. I would love to talk to you about your experience teaching in Africa, and what you see as the biggest problems education faces and the most effective ways to combat these issues. If you would be willing to talk to me I would greatly appreciate it! I am hoping to mail or email out a few questions by May 2012, and wouldn’t need answers back until late August 2012. In the meantime, if you would be willing to help me with my research could you could send me a quick email just letting me know the best way to contact you?
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!
Jackie Rakers
jlyn7791@gmail.com
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