I think I feel differently about the world since coming to Kenya

Kenya has of course changed how I feel about the world around me. I think everyone who goes abroad anywhere feels that they have changed from the experience. When I went to China, I came back feeling more "worldly"...whatever that means. And of course I did change and I did become more understanding and I did grow as a person. However...Kenya is different. China was still very much like home...most of the time I felt as though I was walking around "any large city, USA" where for whatever reason I just couldn't understand the language. I know, I know...it wasn't that simple. The food was different, travel was different, culture was different. I was in another country after all ...but here it feels stronger of "difference".

 I feel like here the USA mindset isn't always appropriate or even useful. People have such burdens and hurdles to overcome that it takes a unique mind to find solutions to problems to make things like healthcare accessible. People are so poor and those that aren't so poor are just plain poor. And yet, somehow, they manage to get to our hospital. Then we make it so difficult to even get care. We require payments for simple tests that are vastly unaffordable for someone who makes just shillings per day; each day we keep them in the hospital causes the bill to be greater (patients are charged by the day)...and forces them to be stuck even longer...(I think you get the cycle here).  I think that I understand the social plight of healthcare better after being here...tho i have no better solutions than anyone else really :-)

But it isn't just healthcare that makes me feel like my perspective on the world is different. I think that I have a greater respect for living without...who knows maybe I'll come home and be less materialistic...even if just for a few months before the USA way grabs me back in. I see how little people have and even so they are happy. Ex: they don't "need" shoes except when the ones they have wear out. Makes me feel a little guilty about my shoe addiction, you know? Its more about friends and family and being together and taking care of one another. I'm not saying its all "Kumbaya" or something here...but its just...well...different.