Village Life Pt.1

Life is tough out in the village in the middle of the desert. There is no electricity, no transportation, little clean water and food is hard to come by. There are no bathrooms, no showers, and education is severely limited…especially for the girls. I spent just a small amount of time out in the bush but what I experienced there was life changing.

Meet Mona. She is 23, has 6 children and is pregnant with her 7th. She was educated to grade 4. When I met Muna I was stunned. I’ve thought about how my life could have be different if I was born somewhere else but I usually focus on how grateful and blessed I am to be where I am and don’t think through the details of how it could be different. Seeing Muna was like experiencing what could have been. This could be me, I could have been born in a village in the middle of nowhere, been married at the age of 13 and started having children as soon as I was able. I could have never experienced a childhood, never had any freedom, never experienced Truth or Love.

She was married off to an old man before she even understood what was happening and now this is her life, she has no choice…she doesn’t even understand the concept of a choice or that there are women in the world who don’t have their entire lives dictated by their fathers and their husbands. Mona didn’t know what her husband does for a job, nor did she know where he was when I talked with her…she hadn’t seen him for a week.

While I was sitting with her, struggling to grasp any understanding of her life she was struggling to do the same thing with me. How could I leave my house, much less my country, without being escorted by a man from my family? Why was I so old and not married? Why did I not have 6 children? Why did I waste my time getting an education in grade school instead of learning to cook and clean and take care of animals?

Mona and I are completely different and yet we are so similar…that very well could be me.