Hello, My Name is Jacquelyn. I am a Human Being.

                This weekend our group held a yard sale and a pancake breakfast. We made quite a large chunk of change and this event has taught me so much. First thing I learned: never take the lead on something if you aren’t going to be able to dedicate yourself 100% to the project. I know that everyone pitched in but so much of the planning and the organizing weighed down my already burdened shoulders. I would just like to thank all of you who helped; I came close to my breaking point almost every day while planning this event. It was those little things that really went a long way. Now with all this said and done, I can relax (as much as possible because this is pretty much full steam ahead).

Another thing I learned: corruption. I have heard the story of the person who saw corruption in third world countries. A delivery is made and the recipients take more resources than they are supposed to. A westerner’s response: “How could they do that? Don’t they know how many children are hungry and would appreciate that food?” I can’t lie, I have had the same reaction to this story. How does this relate? Well while planning the event I was entrusted with keeping the food at my house until the event was able to start. I can’t lie, I ran out of margarine at my house and I went into my fridge and took out a butter package to use it for myself. This happened 3 or 4 times before the event started. I know that this is not on the same scale as some other situations but it taught me something valuable. Corruption is something that occurs so easily, especially when you really need something and it’s all right in front of you. Everyone is a human and as much as we think we are not capable of something we are just as capable as that person. Most people do not believe that they would hurt their fellow neighbours but in the Milgram experiment the participants, who were citizens of the United States, administered electrical shocks to their fellow American, as they were led to believe. The participants were following authority and they were led to believe that they were actually giving electrical pulses to someone on the other side of the wall and many of the participants went up to a lethal level of electricity because someone told them to. This shows exactly what humans are capable of. We cannot sit in our comfy homes, sipping our lattes and judge why there is corruption in the third world. We really do have to walk for a mile in their shoes in order to really understand what is going on. As a North American I am not exempt from this type of behaviour. While preparing for our event I exhibited corruption by consuming something that was not mine and I did not pay for those butters that I took. I know that I may come across this type of corruption while I am in Uganda, or maybe later on in life, but I have to remember to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before I so easily judge them. There are different circumstances which put people in different positions and we are all susceptible to these types of actions.

On another note getting ready to leave has left me feeling like I am running, out of breath, about to fall over and I can’t stop and take a walk to catch my breath. There is so much that needs to be done: the regular stress of getting all of my assignments in on time for classes, making sure my shots have all been given to me, making sure that all of my shots are up to date, starting to shop around for supplies that I need to take on my trip and making sure that I get the best bang for my buck, and making sure that I still have some down time so that I don’t go crazy. Everything just feels insane. I am getting to the point where I am looking forward to facing one of my biggest fears, getting my wisdom teeth out, just so that I have a medical excuse to be made to relax for a few days. I will be on doctor’s orders to recoup after the procedure. I know that in all of this time where I should be relaxing I will be doing all that I am able to do so that I do not miss a minute of studying. Here is a note to my future self when I am freaking out: breathe, everything will be ok. What gets done is what gets done. You are only human and you can only do so much. Relax.