Light

There is this phenomenon in our bodies called habituation or desensitization . We all have sensory receptors that are triggered whenever we are touch, smell, hear, or taste. However, after a while, we stop noticing the thing that is stimulating the receptors. For example, in the morning when you put on your shirt, you can feel the material against your skin. After a while, you forget about your shirt because you don’t feel it anymore. The sensory receptors in your skin have habituated to the shirt touch. You can also see this occur when you walk into a room and at first you could smell the room, however, after a couple of minutes, you realize that you do not smell the room anymore. Your sensory receptors in your nose have habituated itself to the smell. Maybe this is also the reason why we hardly ever realize what we have until we lose it. This could also be why we always see what we don’t have rather than value what we do have. 

For me, I never realized the value of electricity, and more specifically, light. Light was something that I have always had. I could just flick on the light switch and stay awake all night. Because of that, I don’t think I ever realized when the sun went down or how dark it could get so early into the night. It is something that has never been an issue with me since when the sun went down, I could turn on the lights and continue doing what I was doing until whatever time I wanted. I could study until 3:00 AM if I wanted to, I could eat at midnight, I could walk around and see everything in my room and get anything that I wanted. 

Here in Gumbo, most people are not afforded that luxury. Something that I quickly realized was that none of the houses here have any power, and thus, no light. Every night, when it gets dark, it gets dark. Everything has to be done during the day, the cooking and cleaning and studying all has to be done during the day since during the night they have nothing to light up the darkness. From this, I realized that it is hard for most of my students to put in the time to succeed in school. When I look back into my high school and college careers, I realize that most of my studying was done at night. In high school, I would have practice after school, get home and eat dinner and after dinner, when it was already dark outside, I would start my homework. In college, I would routinely stay awake until 2 or 3 AM studying and getting all my work done. However, my students don’t have that luxury. For many of them, the day ends at around 8:00 when the sun goes down. It is hard for them to review their notes because they can’t see their notes. Last year, when report cards were being handed out one of my students said that he could get higher marks, but he didn’t have any light so he couldn't study. 

The other week, we gave little solar powered lamps to the seniors at our school. We called them one by one to the office to hand them out. When they received it, their faces lit up. They had this look on their faces like “This was it!” It was like we had just given them the biggest opportunity of their lives. For them, the world opened up before their eyes as they received the lamps. It was like they could conquer the world now. As they walked out of the office they looked down at the light in their hands and could not help but smile. It made me think about when I had been so happy to receive a gift, when I could not help but to smile and be happy because of a small gift that someone gave me. Sadly, I could not think of one. It has been so long since I have ever had that feeling. It made me realize that way too often, I am too proud to admit that a gift or something will have a huge impact on my life. Many things that I have or have received have profoundly changed my life, but my pride gets in the way of looking at it with joy or thinking, “This is it!”

With everything that I have been blessed with at home, it has been easy to become habituated to the luxuries that are afforded to us. Because I already have everything that I could need, sometimes it is hard to think of any gift as something that could change my life and open up my world. However, seeing the joy on my student’s faces as their lives were changed by something as simple as a light has made me think about the things that I have become desensitized to in my life. It has challenged me to un-habituate myself and to look at all that I have and all the gifts I have received with the lit up eyes of my students. If I did that, then no matter how much or how little I have, I would still be joyful and content with what I have instead of being unhappy with what I don’t have. 

Here are some pictures of the IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) Camp:

The stove which they use to cook