Ethiopia Archives: Mass of Humanity

Not only was there technological differences to live in Ethiopia, but there were also cultural similarities. Jessi was telling a story of how there was a mass of humanity in Ethiopia. This “mass of humanity” is how I describe the experience where we were always shaking hands, bumping shoulders, squeezed into spaces with others and holding other peoples’ babies in Ethiopia. The “mass of humanity” is the one over arching experience that I had while in Africa both when I went to West Africa in 2007 and most recently that I enjoyed. With it you get this sense that you are a part of a massive, shared human experience. Although it could be considered gross, crowded or stressful, there is something about hearing adults laughing, while a baby cries, while smelling everyone’s’ sweat while squeezed into a mini bus that seats 9 actually seating about 14. Although not something one would traditionally be described as pleasant, it gives you a sense of this raw human experience that we are all sharing together. Everybody eats, sweats, cries, laughs and dies no matter what language is spoken or technology is possessed. And although one can understand this concept intellectually or can rehearse the previous sentence and repeat it. It is the experience of being on a crowded bus that one can really feel it.

I was surprised to hear of my Dad remember when he moved from his small town that he shared with his 13 other immediate siblings, that he missed this as well. He remembers being in Minneapolis while working at a big accounting firm and missing the constant noise, physical attention and constant humanity that was his life in the small town.

Although the “mass of humanity” is an experience I was able to put words to due to my experience in Africa, it is an understanding that belongs not to a single continent, but to a way of life that is more rural. In one way I felt that this experience that I had while in Africa brought me closer to my parents. It was almost as if I had to all the way to Africa to understand the living situations my parents grew up in while in their own rural “village.”