Jambo rafiki! Translation: Hello friend! I got back from Kenya last night and I still kinda have jet lag but I thought I'd share something with you guys that I was thinking about lately. I picked up a book in a Nairobi bookstore called The Creuellest Journey. It's written by a woman named Kira Salak who traveled alone by kayak 600 miles down the Niger to Timbuktu, following the legendary journey of Mungo Park the explorer. It's an amazing book, as Kira is not only an adventurer, but a writer for National Geographic Adventure and the New York Times Magazine. Reading Kira's words is like looking at a mirror reflection of myself, except for one glaring detail:she is Buddhist and I am Christian. For her, perhaps religion is just a piece of her, an answer to the question "What do you believe?", a thick thread in the weave of who she is. For me, my faith eclipses my very being. So here is my question: how can I understand someone so well, yet not understand them at all? How can we be so alike, yet so intrinsically different? How can two people with such different backgrounds and beliefs have so much in common? Life is so strange. If Kira was a Christian, I wonder how God would use her gifts and passions. Someday I'd like to meet her.
Thank you for all who keep posting comments. I love reading them and feeling that we are close even though we have the beautiful Atlantic between us.
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