Brenna hit hard by harsh realities

Imagine having a pool of sewage overflow in your backyard. Everyday you live and breathe in the fumes around you. This is how several of the students from Lianna and my environmental club live. They stay in Cosovu, one of the most rundown sections of Philippi, where the only toilets accessible to them sit in a water bath of the overflowed sewage and garbage; and, what’s even worse, is that it’s normal for them. We asked them to show us around their community and point out some of the biggest environmental problems they face. As I stood there staring at this reality, I was overcome with the foul smell and I felt sick. I could barely stand it for the fifteen minutes we were in that area and they are in it everyday. They told me that during election season, government officials and candidates will come in, clean it up and promise that they will change it for good – but it never happens. They use the people for their vote and then leave them neglected once again. This happens over and over and over – my friends are used by their own people and then their lives are thrown out of consciousness just like that, as if they are some lifeless tool that’s no longer needed so it can just be discarded. Some of the students may think of it this w ay, some may not, but either way they still laughed and joked throughout the entire walk, guiding us with their bright spirits through the wreckage injustice leaves in its path. Before I came here this poverty was a distant idea, I knew I wanted to see it, though, and the materialization of it hits me hard. But even so, I have a house to go back to in the quiet, clean suburbs here and back in the U.S. I don’t live in it like my friends do.

Even outside of the townships, my friends still deal with the effects follow them. I’ve gone out with my black friends a couple times recently, and on both nights a discriminating event happened. On two separate occasions, a friend of mine left the club and then tried to come back in but was not allowed to for one reason or another, both of the excuses I know wouldn’t have used for me if I were in that position be it because of my race or gender. Why do people in positions of authority more often than not abuse their power instead of using it for good? The government knows how to exploit people just as the bouncers do. Almost everywhere I have gone here reeks of some facet of discrimination. I love this beautiful country and the wonderful people that live in it, but knowing that I am leaving it soon when its still ridden with such severe, harmful and exacerbating issues is something I do not think I will ever find a way to deal with.