Why Not?

It has become habit and sadly routine for me to ask my self “What am I doing here?” to start off my day. I climb out from under my mosquito net and look through my window that looks out over Lake Kivu.

I get asked the question “so what brings you here?” or “so, what do you do here?” more often than any person should by all of the guests that make their way through Maji Matulivu. I have rehearsed my story over and over, “I am an international development studies student from Canada and I felt like I needed to see first hand what development looks like.” Its hard to say that all of the time because I don’t really know if I even believe the words coming out of my mouth.

It is weird that I am here. I am not a doctor, journalist, or logistician. I don’t really have a title and I spend most of my day inside the HEAL Africa Jubilee Centre checking email and working on various little computer projects. For the local staff here I must look pretty weird.

As I write this post, the rain is pouring off the metal roof of the Jubilee Centre. The sound and flash of the lightening and thunder are not far off. My feet are playing chicken with the streams of water that creep slowly from the windows, despite the fact that they are closed. This is an average afternoon, but is it?

I am checking out the photos I took from my last excursion to Don Bosco, a catholic orphanage that feeds 3000 kids at least twice daily. The longer I look at each photograph the more I realize how out of the ordinary this all is. The dark lava rock roads are drastically contrasted by the bright blue sky and colourful dress of the locals, the amount of kids running in the street, and the odd UN vehicle driving by is now my normal, my average.

This place is wild. Things happen just because they can. TIA, This is Africa.

So I will find myself still asking the same question every morning, “What am I doing here?” The only difference between today and yesterday is my answer, “Why not?”