Kony 2012

I would just like to take a brief moment and express how I feel about the whole Kony 2012 deal. I just have two points on the matter and the first starts with a story

When I arrived in Mali in 2010 I was amazed by how I had stepped into a different world. The people stared at me and I just stared right back all of us wondering what the heck I was doing here. They didn't speak my language and the first night we stayed in what is considered a luxury hotel. That night I thought back to Utah and my small apartment that I shared with 5 other girls and how I may not be cut out to change the world (which for some reason I thought I could...and no one bothered to tell me different). Over the next few days I found myself fall insanely in love with the people. The Malian people are so quick to smile and laugh. They crack jokes and love to make jabs at everyone! I played games with the children who had no idea what I was saying and I had no idea what they were saying but KIDS ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE! We visited many schools where there but something was different about the school in the DK and that would be the large pile of rocks in the middle of their school yard.

We started our village meeting and I soon found out what the large pile of rocks was for a planned school. The village had been told that if they gathered all of the raw materials (rocks, water, ect.) that there would be a contractor that would come to help build them another school. The villagers used their buckets on top of their heads and collected the rocks (which needed to be a certain type) but no one came to build them their school. The villagers were so confused that they had all taken the time to do everything on their end of the deal but the school was still not built. The reason nothing was done was very simple...the lack of money. Upon further discussion they talked about how badly they needed their new school building because more children were being sent and that their old school house had begun to fall apart and was no longer safe to be inside. Here is that school building.

Notice the crack in the wall in the middle picture? It is from the combination of the rainy season and the extreme heat that has no longer allowed this building to be structurally safe. The main thing I wanted you to notice is the last picture and the words "Alta High School" on the side of the building. This building was donated by a group of high school students from Utah. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS donated this building, not the government, not a college, not some big organization but a bunch of 15, 16 and 17 year old kids did. They are the ones who made the difference to this community. They came up with this project and they funded the building of this classroom that has taught many first generation students.

I tell this story to illustrate my first point that sometimes we don't always see the difference that we make. I wish that every single Alta High Student from that graduating class could come and see how grateful these people are for what they did. I think that if these students could see the difference they made in not just one life but generations of lives they would understand how little efforts can make huge effects. But they didn't get to see it...I did. I got to see the amazing effect that the compassion of teens had for people that they will NEVER meet and the joy they were able to bring and it reminds me that no effort is too small.

"There is no sister so isolated, and her sphere so narrow but what she can do a great deal towards establishing the Kingdom of God upon the earth.” - Eliza R. Snow (1873)

I am so grateful that no one told me that I couldn't change the world. I am so grateful for the family members, friends and spiritual leaders who have always listened to my crazy plan of saving those in need and never once told me that I couldn't do it. Because of this I am able to believe that I can change the world...just one small effort at a time. Just like those high school students who decided that instead of raising money for their needs they choose to help their spirit siblings, I too can help my spirit siblings.

There has been some controversy about the legitimacy of the Kony 2012 project (aka the Invisible Children) but what they are asking for is first my support. They ask for my voice. They ask for my time to write letters or put of posters. They do ask for donations but for me that has been blessed with so much why should I say no? Why would I say no? I pay my tithing and that is enough (that is all God asks of us) but why would I say no to people who are asking for my support.

Now on to my second thought (which thankfully is much shorter):

As I am about to graduate in a few weeks with my BS in the "helping human sciences" I look back on all of the majors that I could have chosen. I think about how I could have been a teacher or a music major or English or nutrition but here I am about to graduate with a degree equivalent to social work. I had a professor that told us that we were in a major that would provide us with jobs that were under paid, under staffed, under appreciated and where we will ultimately fight a battle that we will never win (pretty reassuring right?). He said that it takes a certain type of person who would choose to fight a battle day in and day out in hopes that one day things will change. I have found that I am one of those people. Kony 2012 brings to light a battle that we will never win. Doesn't that just make you want to cry. We are now all aware of this horrible thing that is happening to our spirit brothers and sisters and we cannot win. It is hard to think about and is a very persuasive reason for people to pretend it isn't happening. But it is. And like I have come to find out about myself I am someone who is willing to fight a losing battle everyday in hopes that it will change.

"Where you live shouldn't determine if you live" -Kony 2012

At the judgement seat I don't think I can be the one who looks at my fellow spirit siblings and tell them that I would have tried to help them in their country but I think we needed to "deal with my country's problems first". I couldn't say it. I couldn't look them in the eyes and tell these beautiful children "sorry but I knew that once this guy died another would take his place so why bother" or "the organization that wanted me to help you didn't seem credible enough so I choose to do nothing". Could you?

I look at my beautiful nieces and nephews and I my heavenly father that they are safe and happy and healthy but it kills me to think that they could have easily been sent to a family in Uganda. I love those children. I love those children in Mali and for me all those excuses I have heard for why people turn their heads from the disgusting site of these senseless crimes have not been good enough. My love for these people are so much stronger.

So I will write those little emails and I will put up those little posters and I will pray each night for those sweet children, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends who are effected by a man named Joseph Kony.