Monday, May 18, 2015

Life in Kopeiya


It has been a week since we embarked on our journey to Kopeiya. Needless to say it has been quite the experience. We have been a part of several local customs and partaken of the area’s cuisine (it is not every day one eats guinea fowl and groundnut soup with one’s hands!) So now I have to ask myself: What is it that I’ve learned so far? 

My answer to that question is that the whole structure of this village and its people is one of continuous motion. There is very little separation between different parts of life. There is no separation between the secular and the sacred. Gahu the song is nothing without Gahu the dance. The list goes on. Life simply is life.
One thing I’ve noticed in regard to this is that when a person is tired here that person will rest. It is not uncommon to see members of the staff resting between lessons. I feel like this would be an invaluable lesson for our hustle-and-bustle lives back in the States. Too often it seems that Americans do not get enough rest and we are only allowed to sleep for a significant amount of time between the hours of midnight and six (at least for your average college student.) I cannot help but believe our lives would be much easier if we simply allowed our lives to flow as they naturally are supposed to. 

We have a little over a week left here and I can only hope that we all can take a little bit more from this small corner of the world and bring it to a much wider audience.

Best,
Nate

P.S. Technical difficulties on the part of the user means I'm posting this as Ben. :p

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