1. Video of morning call to prayer

2. what does it feel like to be oppressed?

3. Video of walking to squatty potty or other dev-w video bit

4. what does it feel like to live in poverty?

6. algeria

8. i am a privileged, spoiled, rich, weak, picky american.

9. this is just the plain truth.

10. i don’t like this about myself

11. i often romanticize the simple life, the lives of the poor. i don’t get it. this is the problem with privilege: even if i willingly give it up, it was still my choice to make.

13. so there i am.

14. in algeria.

15. beautiful mountains.

16. fabulous food.

17. wonderful family that i am finally getting to meet.

19. and i’m CRABBY.

20. …turns out, in all my travels to the developing world, i had never gotten out of my western bubble to learn what it really feels like to live in poverty and oppression.

21. it doesn’t feel all that great.

22. life is hard.

23. I don’t want to lessen the suffering of the algerian people, but they deal. most of them are just used to it.

24. unlike me, the crabby privileged american, they do not recite to themselves “every problem has a solution” whenever they encounter difficulty.

25. they don’t have a solution to every problem. (matoub lounes, singer and social justice leader of the berber people, was assassinated: 78 shots entered his car.)

26. some things are just difficult.

30. and some things are

31. beautiful.

33. beauty in the midst of poverty and oppression.

35. i had problems noticing: i was a little too focused on the bathroom issues.

36. that’s the truth.

38. it made me wonder: how much beauty am i missing out of here, in my easy life, because i’m Still focusing on the problems?

41. yeah.

42. it was a big learning experience.

43. “the berbers and the barbarians”

44. and humbling.

46. it was hard, and i am thankful.

48. (did you notice I didn’t say “it was hard, But I am thankful”?)

49. i am thankful that it was hard.

51. i am also humbled to discover it was hard.

53. and i wonder

54. how many times do we try to make things easier rather than allowing ourselves to learn from the hard things?

55. or, at Least, how often are we really thankful and aware of how easy our lives are?

57. me, not much.

59. algeria helped me rethink that.

61. thank you, algeria.