Changes and the Challenges of Long Awkward Silences

I have been in Latin America for a little over a year now and I have been reflecting on how much I have changed and the sad fact that I don't have a lot in common with the people that I used to know and love......... I have had this conversation with other expats and they have experienced the same with people that they used to be friends with.......... There is no way that I will ever be able to relay this experience to the people that I used to know- with the exception of some....I cannot convey the vista from my balcony and the orange sherbet color the sky turns when the sun sets in Quito...... Or the people that I have met here that possess a perspective and vision that is so rare. I will never be able to explain my visits to the poorest parts of Ecuador and what I saw or how I felt. The smiling children and the music of the drum beats that enchant the streets at any given moment. How when there is extreme poverty- there is desperation- and where there is desperation there is crime. There is meaning behind every action that a human commits and education is one of the only ways to alleviate these problems, but for some this is a notion that is all too impossible. The fact that corruption influences every aspect of the psyche whether it is in the gov't or on the street.
My cousin from Cuba is moving here to be with me and I am happy to give her a better life............ I am aware of the challenges that this will bring. But to eliminate or alleviate one's desperation is one of the greatest gifts that one can bring another. To change someone's life for the better and to show them that you really care is all that really matters to me. Leaving the United States to live in a developing nation has taught me the value of human interaction. It has taught me to complain less and to focus on what is important in life and to experience the beauty and the determination of the human spirit that I have never experienced before.