Manifesting Positivity Throughout the World

Stories from Ethiopia and Nepal

   The media often throws us negative and stereotypical images of certain places and they forget to show us anything else positive. We see only a fraction of a place, and it’s usually not a good image. The continent of Africa all too often falls victim to these images. For example, there was a massive famine that ravaged Ethiopia in the early 1980’s. So when I got the chance to travel to Ethiopia alongside Alex and Ani and Plan International, a lot of us may have been thinking about this place as a hungry and poverty stricken country. No one ever could’ve prepared us for what we found there instead.

     We found joy and laughter, and the people were just as intrigued about us as we were of them, as we sat amongst each other sharing coffee scanning the foreigners across the table from ourselves. We didn’t expect the grand welcome that we received.  When we stepped into the grounds of a school, every single one of us was overwhelmed by the one thousand school children cheering our welcome and gifting us blooming ripe roses and causing tears to roll down our cheeks. We didn’t expect the traditional dance party that ensued one night in rural Ethiopia, as they served us honey wine and invited us to dance alongside them. Yes, there are many issues regarding the development of the country, but oh my goodness, did Ethiopia prove me wrong.

     When we fall victim to believing a “single story” about a place, we miss out on the magic and wonder that also exists there. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a writer that coined the term “single story” and says also that, “when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”

     After experiencing Ethiopia I realized that the true beauty of a country lies not in its past calamities, or in what I heard on the news, but in the souls of the people that so warmly welcomed us.

     Despite that realization and even after traveling through Nepal in 2014, I still fell for what the media painted as Nepal’s single story following the massive earthquakes that hit the country just one year ago.

     When I got the opportunity to travel to Nepal with Reel Advocacy in support of the nonprofit, SEEDS Nepal, all I could think about was how sad my trip was going to be. I believed that when I would fly into Kathmandu, I would be struck with the horror of the entire city flattened by the quakes. I thought all my friends that I had met the previous year in Nepal, would be different. That maybe they would be ghosts of what they once were with blank stares, still just trying to absorb their life post quake. I had believed the single story of the “Earthquake of Nepal.” I am so happy to say that I have never been more wrong about a place in my life.

Kathmandu, 2014, one year before the earthquake

     The entire city was not flattened, as the media may have led me to believe. Evidence of the earthquakes were present, and yes life was different for many, especially if they had lost their homes or were too afraid to return home in case the next aftershock was the one that would topple their house, but the city seemed to resume life as usual. Throughout the next week, through my conversations with old and new friends, I never experienced so much light, inspiration, or positive energy.

Kathmandu, 2015, less than a month after the earthquakes. I never learned this woman's name, but ran into her again one year later. 

     In the village, mothers sat me down amongst their own children, and fed me with a smile spread across their face. They may now be living in a tin shack after the loss of their home, but their hospitality, generosity, and unwavering faith in the future gave me the same overwhelming feeling as the day the children cheered our welcome in Ethiopia.

Kathmandu, 2014, Tibetan Shopkeeper/ Artist

     In Kathmandu, a new saying has taken place and people greet each other with “Naya Jiwaan” which means “New Life.” They greet each other with hope and positivity, and these elements so present throughout the country was very unexpected. There are still many homeless families, and there is still much rebuilding to be done. Yet they still gave me a seat at the dinner table, or rather the floor of their porch where we shared drinks and smiles and rice. They still gave me their time and shared their stories with me. Once again, I was overwhelmed by how wrong I was about a place.

Same Tibetan Artist that I found in the streets one year later, 2015 after the quakes. He led us back to our hotel safely.

     So if I could pass on anything to you after reading this, it’s that there is positive energy pulsing through every place in this world, even though we might mistake a place for just its’ single story. The people on the other side of the world are really just like us, living their lives day by day, and trying their best to succeed, to move forward, and figuring out their path of life as they go. We are all interconnected not just by one story, but by the millions of stories that make us each unique individuals who are willing to strive for our own personally crafted positive energy. Only through our understanding and knowledge of each other will we together truly manifest positivity for the world.

Author's Note

Please visit www.tasiajensen.blogspot.com to see more work.

Reviews

[elko]

How beautiful... I love reading things like these!