Living and Learning

The good ol’ proverbial “they” out there say, “You live, and you learn,” and I have to agree.  Take these few examples, for instance:

You give 15 former street boys 3,000RWF (5USD) each to buy health insurance, and you learn to ask for receipts.

You eagerly buy a 32GB flash drive from a guy on the street for 5,000RWF (8USD), get home, find out it’s fake, and you learn your street smarts could use some work.

You read a whole book in a big green field on a beautiful, equatorial sunny day, and you learn to reapply sunscreen.

You copy a vocabulary quiz you found online that has extra credit (which you firmly do NOT believe in) in the instructions, and you learn to read the things you hand your students before quiz time.

You venture out on a limb to make homemade tortillas for the first time and put them in the oven to keep them warm, and you learn how tortilla chips are made.

You spend a month delving near death and slowly climbing back from it, and you learn to sleep under a mosquito net.

You read the book of Genesis to a group of genocide orphans, and you learn to see the story of the world in a more meaningful way.

You tell someone how they’ve hurt you, and you learn that people really can change for the better.

You open your eyes, and you learn to see the glimpses of redemption all around you.

You open a book, and you learn to see the world from someone else’s perspective.

You open the door, and you learn not to fear what’s behind the next one.

You open your heart, and you learn who really loves you.

You open your arms, and you learn how to love.

You open your mind, and you learn about yourself and the world around you.

You live, and you learn.

And according to my girl Alanis Morissette, not only do you learn when you live, but also when you love, cry, lose, bleed, scream, grieve, choke, laugh, choose, pray, and ask.  And again, I have to agree.  As I have done each of these things in the last few months, I have learned. 

While I’m here in Rwanda to teach, I find that I’m learning much more than I’m teaching, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.  I love living and learning (and alliteration).