Friday, November 16, 2007

Cyclone in Bangladesh

As I rush from to-do task to the next, I pause and click on the story of the destruction in Bangladesh. The photo of the woman who lost her house and presumably everything she owns in the cyclone strikes me and makes me realize for a fleeting moment how vastly different our lives are. And it makes me wonder how we can make sense of this world.

The students I teach in Turkey want to become teachers, to someday own a house and if they are lucky, a car. Many of them speak of dreams of travel abroad, but I know that dream will only be realized by a few of them. As for me, I am among the very few people in the world who have everything we need and much, much more, and yet. . . What does the woman in the picture want? Maybe to know that her family is safe and will have food and clean drinking water in the next few scary weeks.