Service Learning Reflection #3

Through my interactions at NALC I have been able to connect what I have encountered to reading in class.  What I find so amazing are the sacrifices that people make for education.  This theme was extremely prevalent in Three Cups of Tea and through talking with J. I have witnessed that educating children is worthy of extreme sacrifice.  While reading Three Cups of Tea the story that seemed to remain with me long after I finished the book was that of Uzra Faizad.  She was the teacher in Afghanistan who refused to stop teaching her all girls’ class during Taliban reign and America’s continual bombings.  She truly cared about her students receiving an education: “Here was this strong proud woman trying to do the impossible.  Her school’s boundary had been blown to rubble.  The roof had fallen in.  Still, she was coming to work every day and putting the place back together because she was passionate about education being the only way to solve Afghanistan’s problems” (284).  This sacrifice in order for children to be educated was paralleled in the story of J.  She left the comfort of her homeland, her native language, her family and everything she knew in order to provide better education for her children.  She moved her kids here and sent them to David Lipscomb while her husband stays back in their homeland and works.  Both of these women show a tremendous amount of courage and sacrifice.  It is a concept that, here in America, most of us could never fathom having to do.  We so often take for granted what we are provided and education is one of the things we tend to look at with a passing glance.  Our educational system definitely has its faults but compare it to other countries and we should realize how lucky we are.  These women have made education their lives and we can learn so much from their stories.  They have had to adapt, make numerous sacrifices and show extreme courage in order to make their goal of education come true.  Their day to day lives are shaped by education in one way or another.  In the case of J., she has had to learn a new way of life, a new language, and being the only visible parent in order to provide a better education for her two kids.  Uzra has devoted her whole being in order to change the lives of Afghanistan girls and provide them with better lives. It is because of women such as these two that we can have hope for our future generations.