The Times I Wish I was back in America

Today I went out with Dave and Mark, two volunteers who are working on some of the wells here, and we spent the day fixing one of the wells in La Coupe. We had a fantastic day, and I will write more on it soon, but when I came home I began to really miss being back in America. I wasn’t missing any one thing in particular (though I had missed lunch and a Chipotle burrito would have been awesome), but I was really missing my access to the news and the whole coverage of the explosions at the Boston Marathon.

The events that happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon were tragic and will likely reshape the how we think about terrorism in the future. Some of my closest friends live in Boston and all I wanted to do today was pick up the phone and call to see they were ok. I have never lived in Boston, but I have visited there plenty of times and ever year when my sister and I were in college my sister would talk about the great Patriot’s Day celebration and the Kiss Tunnel she would participate in as a Wellesley student. Even though I have a relatively loose connection to Boston and the Boston Marathon, I am a proud American and anytime there is an attack against Americans like what happened today I want to do all I can to support those affected. Sometimes this just means sitting by the TV, making sure my friends are ok, and praying for those affected. I can still do that in Haiti, but I feel so much more removed from the whole situation. I can’t call anyone, I can’t watch anything on TV, I can’t even get the full story delivered to my door in the morning, I can’t even stream a YouTube video. I can check in with my friends via e-mail, so I know they are safe, but its not personal, that’s not what I want. I can also read the stories online, which is fine, but it all feels so far removed. I want to be back in America, I want to not only know what’s going on but feel it. I feel like my friend has just gone into the hospital and I’m too far away to visit. The only updates I get are from their twitter feed.

National tragedies like these are times not only for relief to friends, but they are times when we as a country come together and re-evaluate ourselves and the path we are on. What are we taking for granted? What are we doing incorrectly? What do we need to change? Though these tragedies are devastating in the present, they reshape our future. I remember being home during the Sandy Hook School Shooting, and thinking about the duty I have to reach out to those who feel cast out by society. I rethought about what peace really meant. I didn’t know anyone at Sandy Hook but the whole tragedy gave me pause and forced me to rethink my values. When I sit here I am too busy getting worked up because the internet won’t load or trying to fix the power that I can’t really focus in on the story, I’m too far removed. As the story continues to develop about Boston, I am sure it will force me to re-evaluate my life, but I wish I could dig into the story more. I wish I could be in America and experience this among other Americans.