Two years ago, I arrived at UBC with a dream in mind. Young, determined, and full of unspoken assumptions, I came thinking that I knew what to expect. In fact, until I sat down to verbalize these dreams in my five year plan (very good idea!), I didn’t quite realize that what was in my head and what was in my heart were quite different! As I began to write, the evidence of a paradigm shift spilled onto the page. Once so confident in my role in the world, I had now started to see very differently, to see the unseen histories, power structures, and ways of relating that have shaped our world today. I saw that mostly, Ihad tended to interpret the rest of the world through a lens created by second hand stories about people I have never met. The stories of ‘the poor’ in our world that are told by the rich, creating a form of ‘poverty knowledge’ that is vastly different from reality.
My definition of ‘the poor’ began to be challenged as I delved further into this story, and began to see that those with little material wealth in this world may be far more rich in the truest things of life than those whose lives are characterized by comfort and financial wealth. This year especially, I have seen my own poverty in a new way; a total paradox between material goods and internal poverty.
This desire to leave my own comforts, leave the familiarity of this culture and hemisphere in order to hear the real stories of others, and see life through a new lens became an urgency as I reflected on the very reason for which I had come to UBC in the first place; to study Nutrition and Maternal Health in an international context, unto becoming skilled enough to serve those in need in what I had once thought of as ‘poor countries’. Everything about this has now been turned upside down and put on pause: why? Because I am not willing to become another ‘development expert’ who is unable to see through the eyes of the other, (those they are trying to ‘develop’) and stand together with them as equals. Furthermore, the assumption that others are in need of ‘development’ is a construct of politics and power, and may not be true at all! I realized that I too have heard a single story (Adichie); both of development, and of nations deemed to be in need of such a thing.
I feel like we as a world are actually on the brink of a massive shift in how we see and understand others around the world; too much has been built on false stories, partial stories, and un-truth.
One year ago, I set in my heart to begin a new journey this May. A journey of discovery, of learning to see and hear differently, of listening to stories, of leaving my own context and becoming ‘the other’ to someone else. One year ago, I did not know how this would materialize. Today, I just finished packing one blue backpack that holds almost all of my worldly possessions. One backpack that will travel along with me to Uganda in just a few short days. One backpack that will be filled with a new story.
I am going on a journey of learning to see. to hear. to smell. to touch. to taste.
I am going to reclaim my senses and shake off the dust of an upside down world in search of an upsidedown kingdom where the first are last, and the last are first.
The Danger of A Single Story, Chimamanda Adichie. Ted Global 2009, Filmed July 2009, Posted October 2000. http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html