I Am Canadian

I'm a Canadian with a very big soft spot for the people of Laos. Wherever I go in the world, I can't run from the fact that I'm a Canadian and Canada will always be my home. And, I should mention, that I don't want to run away from those things! I deeply love my family and friends in North America and I realize now that even the culture is something that I identify with on a deep level. But, after being here in Laos for seven months, my thoughts and prayers have, for the time being, turned towards the people that I encounter each day. Lately even my dreams have been filled with their faces and with the melodic phrases of the Lao language.

On the last day of our joint SALT/ IVEP orientation in Akron, the Interim Executive Director of MCC expressed his opinion that had George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden lived for a year truly immersed in each other’s cultures when they were young, the “War on Terrorism” might never have come to be. I couldn’t agree more. How could I ever agree to drop bombs on this country where my students dance joyfully in the rain and my host family shares sticky rice, spicy green papaya salad and gossip on hot and lazy afternoons? What’s more, having experienced first hand that the people of this tiny country on the other side of the world feel love and joy, pain and sorrow just as we do in North America, helps me to truly take to heart the obvious fact that all people everywhere experience these same sensations. Recognizing our shared humanity is where peace begins.