Sarah here...I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the phrase “walking in another person’s shoes” to get a better understanding about the life another individual is living, and trying to better see their perspective and view. Obviously, living here in Ghana for the past 22+ months has given us the opportunity to not only see a different culture, but live it as well. People in our village have commented to us how impressed they are that we do so many of the same things they do: fetch our own water, wash all of our clothes by hand, ride our bikes to market and buy food, go to farm with people, etc. It has given us new perspective on how we view the actions we take in life, how we want to treat each other (as husband and wife) and others, and how slowing down the pace of life is not a bad thing, but actually opens up more time for enjoying the important thing in life: people.
But throughout this whole time, I didn’t consider this phrase literally until recently, when I began noticing people walking past the school and through our village, continuing south, with different items of merchandise on their heads: cloth, jewelry, watches, etc. After the first small group went by, I was curious and asked one of the teachers at my school who they were, where they were going, and what they were doing. He told me that they were roamers from Burkina Faso, who walked (literally!!) from different places in Burkina down through Ghana to sell their products. When I asked him if they actually made decent money from doing this (because it seems like there are tons of different options to buy cloth and jewelry and things of that nature even in our local market), he responded, “Yes! Plenty!”
My first thought was, “Sheesh! That’s a long way to walk to sell stuff that seems like it would be a hard sell!” My second thought was, “Where do they sleep?” The teacher I was talking to said that they sleep out in the bush! Or, if a family is kind enough along the way, they sleep in people’s compounds or extra rooms. But either way, they are walking a distance every day, not knowing necessarily where their bed will be or where they will end up that night. And they still have to eat: so some of the money they are making goes towards putting food in their bellies.
I saw multiple different groups of this sort come through our village, and it made me curious what it would feel like to live that life. What would it feel like to wake up every day and wonder where you would spend that night? What would it feel like if you didn’t know if you would sell anything that day? Would you be able to eat? How many miles would you walk? And eventually, these people would turn around and walk back north to Burkina, where hopefully, their walking would have produced a profit that they could take home to their families.
Jordan and I love the Peace Corps experience that we are living. But it is temporary. We love fetching water (for now), and cooking by headlamp (for now), and biking through the hot sun to get food (for now), and having more than a few sleepless nights because it’s too hot to sleep (for now!). So while we have enjoyed living in and learning from a new culture, at the end of it, we will go home to an “easier” and more comfortable way of life. We will be able to take all of the lessons we have learned, and go back to living in the U.S., with air conditioning when we need it, cold water close at hand, flushing toilets without cockroaches scurrying away from our headlamps and hot showers when we want them. Seeing the different groups of Burkina nomads traveling south was another reminder that life is not always easy, and some ways of life are COMPLETELY different from my own, and the one that I want to live. It’s a reminder that I should be so very grateful for the life I was born into, the opportunities that I have been given, and the ability to be able to choose the life that will come next. Not everyone on this earth is so lucky to have those options, so if you are reading this, take a moment to give thanks for the wonderful life and opportunities you have been given.
In this instance, I have been temporarily walking in someone else’s shoes, and was given the opportunity to see what it might be like to try on another pair. Believe me, it made me thankful for the shoes that I was given!
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