Larissa on giving love

"I AM" is such an amazing film and what an amazing way to look at things.  I constantly struggle between viewing having obscene amounts of money as simply ridiculous and more trouble than good, and viewing having obscene amounts of money as a fantastic opportunity to be able to help those in need.  I guess it all depends on what this rich person actually decides to put it towards.

It has been shown in science that there are so many physiological effects of love- we need to base more of what we do off of these findings.  Sometimes the problems of our world seem overwhelming, and perhaps because we don’t know where to start, we don’t start.  But we need to.  We need to start.  We need to start changing if we want our world to change. 

It blows my mind to think about the human heart and how we truly are compassionate beings. Something in the way our society has grown (or shrunk down to) has told us that we don’t need to care- that we need to focus on ourselves and do what is best for us individually.  But maybe what’s best is to help others.  Maybe the human race is not supposed to function individually, but as a group, as a whole, as a unit. 

No matter how bitter the person, everyone feels a sense of pride, happiness, usefulness, and motivation to do better when they help someone else.  When you are a compassionate human being, your mood changes and your body scientifically responds that it is what you should be doing.

It makes me think of the numerous times I’ve been in a bad mood, then gone to work with my kids at school or at camp, and I’m automatically back in a good mood.  Helping them, and seeing their innocence is the motivation I thrive off of to do better in this world and to put in my fair share of love.

Larissa with children in her dance class in the after school program in Nyanga

Is it that much to ask, to love?  Love is one of very few things where you still gain while giving away. 

Give love and you will feel love

Larissa appreciating the loving people in the world

Larissa contemplating the world in which we live

I’ve officially lost my wallet.  Not gotten it stolen, but lost it.  And after spending some time crying over how I’m going to buy presents for people at home, or how I’m going to go out this weekend, I’m oddly at peace with the situation right now.  I find myself thinking (and hoping) that the money in that wallet is helping to feed someone’s family right now.  I’m not saying that I would support someone taking a lost wallet (regardless of its intended use), but I am saying that I have to make the best of this situation, and I like to think that everything happens for a reason.  I realize this may be wishful thinking, but perhaps the person who found that money today needs it more than I do and is putting it towards something good.  There are good people in this world and I like to think that whoever found that wallet is a genuinely good person.  I’d like to think that they wanted to get it back to the rightful owner, but simply couldn’t do so.  I truly hope that the person who has my wallet is putting it’s money to good use.  

Before getting to finish that post, I heard about the explosions at the end of the Boston Marathon.  I spoke to my best friends and heard their story of being in between the two explosions, chasing them out of the city, as they ran by children being carried away, and hearing screams that will never be erased from their minds.  I found myself furious with the world.  It didn’t help to know that families from the Newtown tragedies were being honored at the finish line, right by the explosions.  How much sickness is in this world?  How cowardly can one be to do such horrible things?  I stopped myself from continuing my earlier writing, in fear of forming angry sentences that would lead to nothing but confusion and encouragement of hatred in our world. 

It is the day after the gut wrenching stories first began about Boston, and I’ve been able to find a new perspective.  Instead of asking how much sickness is in this world, why not ask how much good is in this world?  Picture after picture in the media shows bloodied bodies and missing limbs, but take a closer look and you’ll see people running towards the injured ones, you’ll see people taking care of strangers lying on the sidewalk.  There are stories of runners pushing through the finish line and continuing the way to Mass General Hospital to donate blood.  There are stories of people opening up their homes to anyone who needed shelter immediately after the explosions.  There are stories of people sitting on benches simply offering a shoulder to cry on and an open heart ready to listen.  These are the stories I want to talk about.  There are horrible things going on in this world, and it is important to know the facts and to work towards solutions, but I believe that part of that solution is to focus on good things as well.  For every horrendous tragedy this world has endured, there are thousands of people who jump to their feet to offer support in the aftermath. 

At the end of the day I find myself reflecting and wanting to say, appreciate your loved ones, appreciate the loving people in this world, and live your life to be one of those loving people worthy of appreciation throughout your lifetime.  

Larissa on childhood coversations

My work in Eros always has been such a learning experience, especially in just watching and listening to my students.  It’s so amazing how much you can learn from children, they are so knowledgeable on so many things that we seem to progressively lose over the years!  Three of my students were playing house today, one of their usual playtime games.  Two of the kids held a baby, and they told the other to play dad.  Before the ‘dad’ could even say or do anything, the two other kids started yelling, “don’t hit my baby!  You hit my baby, you leave my house!  Stop hitting my baby!”  Before I even got a chance to fully comprehend the situation they were both simultaneously imagining, I found myself having to pull those two students off of the ‘dad’ as they punched her into the corner.  Keep in mind these are four year old children.  One of the punching kids defended herself by explaining that if daddy hits baby, mommy hits daddy.  After talking to the kids and dealing with the situation at hand, I had to compose myself as I realized that two of my little innocent babies had gotten this play situation from a real life scenario.  They had to have, it’s not everyday that children play house that way.  Whether it is from something they are living through, something they’ve heard talked about, or something they’ve seen from TV, it’s something they should not have to ever think about at such a young age. 

Another interesting conversation I witnessed in the classroom today was one about race.  When asked what color the crayon was, my student responded correctly that it was black.  “My daddy is black, and mommy is white” he told me.  Another girl added, “my daddy is black too”, knowing that her mom is colored (she works in the school so I see her often); I asked her what color mommy is.  She responded, “mommy is white”.  I followed up with asking, “What color are you?”  Both would be considered by most as being colored, but one answered, “I’m white” and the other answered, “I’m bla… brow… I’m…” and put her head down to continue coloring.  I’m not really sure what to make of this statement, but it just got me thinking about how interesting it was to see children not know how to classify their own race.  Is that a good thing that it does not really matter to her what color she is?  Is that a bad thing that she is so confused about different races mixing that she isn’t even sure how to look at her own skin and therefore her own self? 

Larissa's "spring break" in South Africa

For our spring break in South Africa we took a trip up to Johannesburg where we were able to visit some of the most important and informative museums in the country.  We started off the week by visiting the Hector Pieterson Museum where I learned the gut-wrenching story of young boys and girls who were killed while protesting having to switch to the “white language” of Afrikaans in school and Bantu education.  One of the things that stuck out most to me was the photo of the man running with the bloody and limp body of Hector Pieterson in his arms, along side Hector’s sister who is screaming out in disbelief beside her baby brothers dead body.  Such a powerful image to see people so young putting in such an effort, risking their lives, to stand for their beliefs and their rights in a world where they were being forced down into undeserved silence. 

We also got to tour the Apartheid Museum where there was a huge Nelson Mandela exhibit going on.  Obviously we hear about Nelson Mandela all the time, but this exhibit really offered another perspective on not only what an amazing leader he was, but an amazing human being as well.  He is a perfect example of someone who worked his or her way up from the bottom all the way to being completely successful not only in his own personal life, but in positively changing the lives of millions of people. 

We also got to tour Constitution Hill, where thousands of black and white prisoners were held throughout the apartheid battle.  Nelson Mandela had even stayed there for a while, although he was in the hospital wing while he waited for his trial dates.  There were different sections of the prison, including parts for men, women, blacks, and whites.  It amazed me to learn that if the women were pregnant, they would still live in the jail cells, and the black women would even have to go go through labor in the jail.  The white female prisoners were allowed access to the hospital, where they could hand off the child to someone outside of jail as soon as it was born.  Since the black women were giving birth in the prison, this meant their newborn babies were going to be in prison with them.  No crib, no diapers, no baby food, just the warmth of their mothers’ body. 

By the end of the week, we had gained a new understanding of quite a few political leaders of South Africa, and of the way South Africa had worked during the many years of apartheid.  To end our week of learning, we drove down to Kruger National Park, the safari! 

To say the safari was one of the coolest experiences of my life has to be an understatement.  We parked about 6 feet away from lions, we saw elephants nurturing their babies, we witnessed giraffes picking from the top of the trees, and some groups even saw leopards nesting in the branches. 

Not only was the safari a real life sight out of a National Geographic television special, but also the time we spent at Kruger National Park was another priceless bonding session for my group of co-educators.  Weekends where we get out of the house and get to mix with more people from the group are always nice, it gives us an opportunity to have sleepless nights of wonderful conversation and to strengthen the friendships we’ve been building since day one.

Bundled up for early morning game drive
left to right from back: Savitri, Jerard, Andrea, Avery, Elise, Carl, Aimee, Patrick, Anna, Erica, Larissa, Allie, Sharon

Spring break on Cape Town Study Abroad is certainly not what most people think of as a typical college spring break, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of spring break!  I wouldn’t want it any other way- this was such fun and just one more thing to add to the list of what makes this experience one of the best times of my life.