If I had words to make a day for you, I’d sing you a morning, golden and true

                Every morning in Lesotho, I would wake up with two significant mindsets that would fill my soul for the day.  I would wake up with a feeling of purpose, and I would be filled with hope.  The mornings would be a promise of the work that would be accomplished, as well as the time and opportunity we had to get our hands dirty into making the future better for the Basotho we loved so dearly.  Throughout the day, every experience I encountered would pull on these mindsets.  I would plant a tree and wonder, “What if it doesn’t grow?”  I would hug a child and think “Will they be able to go to school?”  While the sense of purpose would remain strong, my hope would start to dwindle as I witnessed the complicated oppression they lived in every day.  I knew I was making a small difference, but the problems seemed too big to heal completely.  In the evenings, everyone on our Lesotho trip would come together to talk about what we experienced and how it was weighing on our minds.  We struggled as we talked about the poverty, hunger, and sickness that plagued those we loved, but we also talked about the greater change that was becoming from our small simple acts.  We had the evenings to grapple with this concept; how simple acts, when multiplied by millions, could change the world.  We might have gone to bed feeling confused and overwhelmed, but in the mornings, there was always the beautiful restoration of purpose and hope. 

          

                 I think it was important for everyone on our trip to find that sense of purpose when coming back to America.  In our own way, we each had to find avenues to keep giving out our Lesotho love.  As I struggled to feel at home again, I remembered a conversation I had with a Basotho friend about his country.  He said that in Lesotho, everyone had the opportunity to just be themselves.  There was so much land that they had the time and quietness to actually hear their own voice and really be free.  He left me with the words that in America, we were just a statistic.  Lesotho was a place to become more than just a number.  My mornings under the African sun were a reinstallation that I was called to make a difference.  Returning back to America, I missed the mornings of those beautiful, raw emotions, but was fueled with the desire to never become an invisible number that my friend warned me of.        

No matter our experiences, having been to Lesotho or not, I think every human deserves to wake up with the hope and purpose of a bright day.  We have the power to live out our life as examples of human goodness, spreading this purposeful hope to others who need it most.  Right now, I have the hope of believing I can make a difference as an intern with Bloom, I have the purpose of finishing school so I can use my education to make a difference for others, and I will always have the love of Lesotho in my heart.

-Katharine

Katharine Ritzi traveled to Lesotho in 2011, and is currently a senior at Wittenberg University. She is also serving as an intern with Bloom Africa.