How can you sum up years of life changing experience in a 30 second conversation? You can't. And so I don't know what to say when people ask if we're glad to be back or if we've adjusted. When we said we were back just for a few days, the eyes were wide and people were so curious to how we were doing. Then our time here stretched into weeks, and then months. After a while people just assume that since we've been here for a time that we aren't really different any more. They stop asking.
People don't have time for long conversations, but I so wish that I could somehow share with people about our life in Bolivia without boring them, or without over-glamorizing it. Geez, it was life and an amazing/difficult/crazy/normal one at that.
Should I have a quick little slideshow on an I-Phone that I don't even have? Should I bring up social justice issues effecting Latin America and how Canadians can become involved? Should I talk about living on $7 of groceries a day (and how that was so much in comparison to what others had). Should I tell them about all the awesome travelling we had the chance to do? Do those things make people feel guilty or uncomfortable or just plain bored?
Or should I just invite myself and my family over to someone's house. Eat together and talk about our lives, intertwined with things that have blessed us all, things that we love, funny humourous experiences...common ground where we can both come and share our story. Maybe that's it.
3 comments:
I found that I talked about Brazil ALL the time when I came back, and that went on, and on, and on, for so much longer than I thought it would. But I just owned it, because for whatever reason, it was a life-changing part of my life, and shaped me into the person I became.
Own it. It's awesome.
tell me it all. i have time and i care about your life...Bolivia was your life. share away!
i have not stopped thinking about the things your shared with me last wednesday...about the $7...about the lady and the baby boy...about the potatoes. that little conversation affected my heart deeply. i want to know more.
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