Come Together

I have spent the majority of the last 10 years of my life living,working and travelling outside the country I was born and raised in.

What was originally planned as a 3-4 month adventure away from my home country has lasted now for almost a decade.

As is probably the case for most people, the first time living abroad was full of excitement, inspiration and romanticisation of everything ‘different’.
10 years on, of course the honeymoon phase is over and some experiences have been sobering.
However, moving between different countries and cultures is an extremely enriching experience and I feel very grateful and privileged to be able to do this.

The periods that have been especially formative for me were the times spent in Asia, namely Nepal, Vietnam and Laos.

We have a lot to learn from what we call the developing world,a term which appears to me more and more bizarre. Having spent around 10 months in so called ‘developing countries’, I would love to see this term abandoned. Yes, of course, there is need for development. But surely a country can’t solely be judged by it’s gross national product and the quality of sanitary facilities. What about social cohesion, generosity, the role of spirituality…?

Spending time in the East has been truly precious to me, challenging many of my convictions. This is where I saw and met the most incredible people, mastering circumstances I couldn’t even have imagined before. I feel humbled every time I think back to one of the many encounters I had with these true ‘Lebenskünstler’, a word I struggle to translate literally into English from my mother tongue. It describes a person who doesn’t give up, whatever life throws at them and shows great imagination when faced with difficulties. There is an abundance of ‘Lebenskünstler’ to be found in the world.

Entering into a culture so very different from your own can sometimes come as a bit of a shock, especially in the first weeks.

What the time abroad has taught me, is, that whatever I perceived as ‘strange’ at first, makes complete sense after some time. In fact, some things I used to perceive as ‘normal’, actually made no sense to me anymore after some months of being immersed in a very different culture. Returning to the West after a longer time away is equally shocking as the first days in a country where 4 people or 30 chickens are transported on one motorbike.

The more I see of the world through my own eyes, rather than a TV screen, the more I realise that the things that unite us as human beings by far exceed the ones that separate us. The different language, skin colour or cultural background does not matter in the moment you share a meal or smile with somebody.

There are some things that are universally true for all human beings. Everybody wants to be safe,free and happy. Nobody wants to suffer. The expressions of this truth are sometimes hard to understand. However, the more people from different parts of the world I meet, the more I am convinced: all differences between us are only superficial.

It is time to focus on what connects us as human beings, rather than on what separates us. There simply isn’t an alternative.