By Kaia Deane

When we were at the Lion Camp, we all were playing UNO with the staff.  They kept saying “if you’re not tired, I’m not tired.  If you’re happy, I’m happy.”  That related to the Senegalese proverb because they are considerate about other people and what they want.  If someone doesn’t want to do something, they’re not going to force them to do it.  If someone does want to do something, they’ll go along.  Nothing is forced or decided individually.

In America, everyone is kind of individual and focused on themselves.  If someone doesn’t want to do something, even as simple as UNO, they’ll just walk away.  They won’t put the group first.  They’ll put their own interest first.  And that applies to a lot of different situations – it applies to everyone in the country and what they want to do and what they need to satisfy themselves.  Even if their actions hurt or impact others, they do them.  Even if it’s something as simple as a game having to stop, people put their own interests first back in the US.

Everyone here seems happier here because they’re thinking about other people.  If I am thinking about your happiness, and you about mine, we can find happiness together.  Even on a big scale, small things are tackled together.  Everyone is trying to help out to reach one common goal.  At the beginning of the trip, when we visited the village we saw people working on a church. When they were making the bricks for the Catholic Church, a woman was helping get the water, little kids were carrying the water from the well to the brickyard, and in the church a group was mixing the water with the cement.  This job wasn’t for the brick makers or the adults, it was for everyone.  It was a community job and it seemed to be teaching a community mindset.

I noticed when we were dancing at the soccer match yesterday, a few people were helping lead the dance.  But those people weren’t assigned that role – they just took it for as long as they could and then the next person stepped up.  It was clearly something the entire fan section needed but it wasn’t an assigned role, it was just something the group needed.  So the people took turns playing that role.  It was obvious that people were thinking about the group and not about their own experience.

One day in our group discussion, Mr. Alter pointed out that much of the behavior we see here is really just “being normal.”  Being normal is working hard to experience and provide what you can in life.  It’s about doing the best you can each day, taking advantage of those opportunities.  80 years is the average lifespan but that really isn’t a lot of time.  If you don’t do anything, you are losing the chance to make an impact.  The opportunity to help someone else have a better day.  It doesn’t have to be a big act of kindness or becoming the president, it can be a small thing.  But if you help somebody and be normal and present in your own life, it can really add up.  80 years can become a lot of opportunities.

This perspective and new mindset has changed my own way of thinking about my life.  Now I want to really think about how my actions impact others.  I have seen how efficient it is to think about others – how it actually helps each individual.  In the US we seem to have a lack of that.  I want to “just be normal.”

I think that the mindset of thinking about others and doing things with them is really motivating.  Even if something is hard, you have the support of the people there with you.  That can help you actually get stuff done and push through.  It’s also just nice to know that you aren’t going through it alone.  It’s motivating and comforting.