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.
On Wednesday we were given the opportunity to attend the Memphis Rolling Grizzlies practice. The Rolling Grizzlies are a group of guys that are athletic, entertaining, and very inspiring. The individuals who make up the team all have different backgrounds, lifestyles, and goals, however there are two things they all share; they love the game of basketball and they play in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA). For those of you who think the words disabled or paralyzed entails that someone is unable to compete or perform in an athletic sense get in contact with me and I’ll take you to the next practice and be more than happy to show just how wrong you are. We watched them practice for two hours, and I honestly hadn’t realized that even 30 minuets had gone by because I was so engaged and amazed with what I saw. I don’t know about you, but I played baseball, basketball, and football my whole life growing up, practice after practice. With my memories and knowledge of baske...
I love this post, Cameron - very insightful and full of OT-think!
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