Blog Post Challenge #8

For class today, we were asked to listen to a podcast before class titled The First Cow. The speaker was Abeny Kucha, a woman from southeastern Africa who has an amazing story. Her village was destroyed by war and for years she bounced from refugee camp to refugee camp walking and traveling for over eight years. Luckily she and her family made it to America. Listening to her story really opened my eyes to just how lucky I am to have the life that I have. When they first arrived they were taken to this apartment and told it was their new home… she expressed that the word home meant more to her than most could understand. Her children had never had a home, they had never been able to sleep in peace without any worry. She spoke of how they had no idea what orange soda was or what a fire alarm was, things that you never even second guess or need to think about can be completely foreign to others. She also mentioned how they had two couches in the living room and how no one in her family had ever seen a couch… a couch! We as Americans could learn so much from people who live and grow up in areas such as the place Abeny is from. I feel that we would all appreciate life and everything we have so much more. One last thing I wanted to mention was towards the end of the podcast she mentioned how she was able to enroll her children into a school and when the first day came she walked them to the bus stop and watched as they loaded up and the bus drove off. She mentions how she just stood there for a while with tears pouring down her face and how she was terrified that they may never come back that she might never see them again. I would guess not a single one of us would ever have to experience those thoughts as we send our children off to school, not that we don’t worry about them, but we know that the bus is taking them to school and bringing them home afterwards. Abeny however did not know this the way we do, so put yourself in her shoes and imagine how it might feel. I am so glad I was able to listen to her story and emotionally it truly touched my heart and reminded me how blessed I am as well as reminded me to do better by others especially those who may look or seem different, you never know the pain behind someone’s eyes.