"I simply can’t do that anymore. For that, I say “Thanks, Africa.”

[pampango]

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/thanks-africa/#more-5227

Part of me feels like I should be using this post — my final opportunity to reach this vast number of readers — to pledge my service to the Peace Corps, promote some worthy charity or discuss drastic changes I’ve made in my daily routine since returning stateside. But, for now anyway, my gratitude will have to suffice.

Africa affected me in ways I didn’t think it would. While I didn’t know exactly what to expect from the trip, I wasn’t fully prepared for what I saw to weigh on me after returning like it has. When I was flipping through photos of the trip yesterday, both pain and joy came rushing back with surprising intensity. Seeing the faces of people whose paths intersected with mine ever so briefly made me wonder what they’re doing right now and what their futures hold.

Two people whose stories were particularly touching were teenagers Newish Matsoumba and Ipadi-Ngot from Mont-Belo, Republic of the Congo. As I detailed in an earlier post, the two boys dreamed of getting a college education and working in a big city even while they struggled to find enough to eat at home. Exactly one week after Newish and Ipadi-Ngot invited me into their lives in their rural hometown miles from nowhere, I stepped off a plane and rejoined my comparatively painless existence back in Midwestern suburbia.

It was a typical spring day in Kansas City. A traffic jam slowed me down on the Interstate, my dad grilled cheeseburgers for dinner and I watched the Royals lose yet another game from the comfort of my air conditioned house. But even though I had experienced afternoons like that my whole life, the coziness of it all gnawed at me as I remembered the struggles of Newish and Ipadi-Ngot.

I grew up being told how lucky I was to live where I lived and attend the schools I attended. I even remember once being told to eat everything on my plate because “kids in Africa are starving.” But it’s hard for an American who has only ever attended great schools and lived comfortably to be truly thankful without a healthy dose of perspective. And while I don’t think I ever acted too entitled or overindulgent, I lacked that perspective, and as a result took my education and possessions for granted.

After encountering incredible people like Newish and Ipadi-Ngot who so badly want a world-class education, I simply can’t do that anymore. For that, I say “Thanks, Africa.”