Freshman year of college I took a sociology course and the teacher made us read an ethnography. The one I chose to read was about girl gangs in different cities around the United States. On one of the days that my professor couldn't make it to class he had his grad student TA tell us about her experiences in Central America during her time in the PeaceCorp the year before. Needless to say, this was my favorite course I ever took in college and it was so valuable in the sense that I learned what I love learning about.
I have spent plenty of time looking up and down the aisles of non-fiction at the library searching for ethnographies/memoirs (if you have ever aimlessly scanned the non-fiction shelves you know how hard of a task this is). Last week, when I went to the library I happened to check the 'Just In' section and ran across a book called No Greater Love by Levi Benkert. I read the back cover and decided that it was most definitely something that I would enjoy reading. Long story short the book was about how a young man from California went on a two week trip to help start up an orphanage in Ethiopia (the orphanage was for mingi children--children who were killed for a variety of ludicrous reasons that stem from the superstitions of the tribes that live in the rural south of Ethiopia). The two week trip turned into him returning back to California to sell his home and belongings and to pack up his family (wife and 3 small kids) to turn around and head back to Ethiopia indefinitely. The book explains their struggles and their triumphs with the orphanage and with their new lives in Ethiopia. In the end they were unable to accomplish setting up the adoption process for these children due to government restrictions and international adoption agencies that do not hold the child's interests to the highest degree possible. --No worries, the orphanage in rural Ethiopia has nannies that dedicated their lives to taking care of the mingi children.-- Levi and his wife and kids ended up moving to Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) and now run their very own organization Bring Love In (link--bringlove.in). Bring Love In's mission is to create new families from widows and orphans in Ethiopia. It is such an amazing organization and their journey is an incredible one, I highly recommend everyone and anyone to read it. The moment I finished the last page I was signing online to send an e-mail to Levi expressing how fortunate I felt to have read his book.
Anyway, the purpose of this post was to not summarize my latest reading for you, but instead to explain how moved I was after reading it. First off- I was ready to board the next plane to Ethiopia if it weren't for that fact that I don't have a passport.
In the book Levi talks about how he and his wife both knew that they were supposed to go to Ethiopia, it was their calling... they knew that they were made for so much more.
They had both done humanitarian work in various countries when they were a bit younger and pre-kids. Once finishing the book all I could think about was how little I have completed compared to these two amazing souls. I know that I want to help people, I want to stretch my arms out across cultural barriers, and I want to make a difference. I want to help people that are less fortunate than I am and I want to learn about them while doing so. That is my passion. I want to be the one writing down my experiences in a journal that someone years from now picks up and is able to learn something about the world through my words.
I know I don't have to cross oceans, or even state lines in order to partake in my own journey of helping others, of becoming something more than I am.
I don't think I can adequately express how this book made me feel... but I must leave you guys with a video off of his website. It's one of those that really make you think about your life compared to the lives of sooo many others. Hope you enjoy.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bDinseiC4y8)
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