Awareness

May 18, 2018

Nearly every morning that I step out of the Pago Inn, one gentleman connected with the hotel (though I am not completely aware how) calls out, “Good Morning, Daniel!” We’ve never been formally introduced and it always seems that one or the other of us is entering a vehicle so there is little time for any other conversation. This small event made me aware that when I jog early morning here, fairly regularly my eyes meet those of other walkers or joggers with accompanying ‘good mornings.’ Certainly these are simply humane gestures in a place where people are pretty generous with their time and respect, but I am intrigued by the naturalness of it.

During the daily trainings I conduct here, when lunch time comes around, there is always the desire for one of the participants or staff to serve me my lunch, which is both kind and kinda interesting, since all of our lunches arrive in a large cardboard box with an accompanying plastic bag of beverages. No special event, just our mid-day break. But then I notice that if I try to clean up a little mess, someone wants to take care of it for me. And if I ask about finding a computer file or document, more than likely they do it right then and there.

It’s all so simple. It’s all so kind. It’s all so genuine.

One of my students here said she’s happy how I make myself aware of life here and collaborate with them to build our work around the norms and realities of life in the islands, rather than simply teach them the ways other people work. I can’t imagine working any other way, however, as I have been so influenced by the societal norms here and other places I have worked on this side of the globe. How responsive people are to who you are, what you need, how you feel or what they can do for you. How people are so genuinely pleased to be able to do something for someone else, rather than worrying what they gain from the situation.

I feel as though all of these experiences have encouraged me to regularly ask myself, ‘How do I stay cognizant of the needs and norms of the moment? How can I embrace what is, rather than force it to be what I wish?’

Or even worse, force my norms on others. I think hard on this when reading about the boys on a campus tour who were reported to authorities for being ‘quiet’ and ‘stand-offish.’ Or the college student who called campus police about a young woman asleep in the dorm lobby. Or the woman who called 911 because the renters ‘didn’t wave.’ In each case, the ‘suspect’ was a different race or ethnicity. Essentially, the ‘suspects’ lived life a little ‘differently,’ but it became a problem because those people were, well, … you finish the obvious.

I find the enticement of opening myself to other ways, no matter how much those ways might differ from the norms I am so used to, offer me as much a chance to learn as those individuals I am working with. And therein lies the real joy. The sharing of lives. The building of respect. As an educator, this offers me the opportunity to inspire, to question, to explore and not to simply ‘teach.’ We all grow through the shared experiences.