September 5, 2006

I sit in the cool shade listening to the blaring music and a loud announcer over a megaphone. No one in my neighborhood can escape from the noise that pierces my heart. It is a party, a celebration. I watch as female guests pass my house on their way home, then silence. Is that a screaming goat or a screaming little girl? The party was for the 3 girls who were having their clitorises cut off today.

In the mornings, I lie in bed listening to screaming children who I assume are being beaten.

I remember in college reading Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and really taking to heart Shylock's words, "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

We are all human. We feel pain, love, joy, anger, and peace; however, this does not make us the same.

My body cringes when I hear the hysterical children, when I hear a screaming that I can't differentiate between a goat or a girl. My being feels their pain and my heart screams, "Stop. It is wrong. You are abusing children."

Do the Guineans feel the same sensations that are tearing up my soul? If they did wouldn't they stop? I wonder what would have to happen in order for a Guinean to feel what I feel when I hear the daily screaming neighbor children.

We are all human with various emotions, but what makes my heart twinges with angst doesn't effect everyone the same. Lots of kids here get beat and flogged. It tears me apart.

I fear that maybe I will become desensitized if I stay in this country.

I could rationalize because I feel horrible when I hear a children being beaten, it is wrong; however, the Guineans don't feel the same things I do. So is it wrong for them? In the USA we spank our children too and don't feel horrible.

When is the line crossed? When do we say, "It is universally wrong? It is inhumane?" When do we start imposing our moral judgements upon another culture?