Saturday Night Out

Today we had a very American breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). After that, we headed to the library to get some work done and use the internet. The library had about three employees. Two of them were Hispanic and half of the people in the library were Hispanics. During our stay in the library, I heard many people speak Spanish. It was interesting to see that Hispanic parents are keen on making their children join the library’s summer program. I heard a mother speaking to her children in Spanish and when I heard the children speak to the Librarian, they had a perfect American accent. In my mind, I was thinking that she is a recent immigrant but her children were born here. She doesn’t speak much English but she is keen to teach her children English and educate them. She came to America to earn more money and give her children what she never had. It could be better living facilities or more luxuries in life but I’m sure it’s a better education. We had the rest of the day to enjoy California and have a typical young American Saturday night.
I decided to get coffee from a near by Coffee place called Coffee Bean. After ordering, I noticed that they sold the “Save Darfur” CD. I’ve heard that many artists agreed to perform for Darfur and the money generated from the sells will be allocated to the displaced people there. I noticed that most of the organizations working to end the conflict in Darfur are based in America. Not to mention the activists and the rallies done here every while. I was aware of the fact that the American civil society is very active when it comes to spreading awareness about Darfur but I never saw that myself. I really appreciated this however, the feeling of helplessness started taking over me. When I walked out of the café, I sat down with the rest of the girls. A middle-aged man approached us and started talking to us. He said he was originally German but he lived here since he was 11. When I told him where I am from, he gave me a sad face and said the country is going through rough times, what’s happening there is sad. I started thinking about Darfur again. Technology is interesting. 100 years ago, it was hard to find out what’s happening in other parts of the world. But today, communication is advanced. Even if you are in America, you can still know about Darfur, see pictures and videos of the people there and imagine what they are going through. I know about the sufferings in my country. I always think about it. When I’m writing my Blog, I remember the brave female journalist in Darfur who uses a tree instead of a laptop. When I look at the lake, I remember the lake there. Al Gore said it’s drying up because of Global warming. I think about their life without this source of water in the future. Will we have a better government to provide another source of clean water for them or will they suffer again? I think about the people there when I sip coffee and remember the delicious desert made by my smiley Darfurian maid. It’s funny how the things that are so far from you are so close to your heart and mind.