I read “Notes from My Travels” by Angelina Jolie which is a diary she kept during her first visits to Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador. Her perspective upon entering this new land was that of an under- informed American just wanting to know what was really going on. She continuously talks about how she has the choice to go there and learn. She then contrasts that with the fact that the people who are living these lives have no choice; this is what they were given and this is what they must live with.
I entered Mexico hearing so many horror stories about the poverty and the crime but I was surprised at what I learned. I had expected to see the sadness that I assumed comes with the suffering, but it was no so apparent. Jolie made a very good point about these places in that there, “it just seems important to laugh”. These people who have been through life’s most terrifying moments still find a way to smile and a way to find the good, no matter how deep they have to dig.
When she first landed she described the experience of trying to communicate with the UNHCR representative as being hard at first but she “realized quickly that smiles and gestures were all you really need sometimes.” I think that I relate to this in terms of my travels because there were just times when I could not understand what people were saying and if I just smiled, they usually got the point and found some other way to communicate with me.
One of her moments of self-realization was on a small plane right with a group of Sierra Leoneans. She said that everyone was very friendly and talkative except for the two people in front of her and she had been thinking to herself that they were not very nice people. Half way through the trip they opened up to her and told her that they had just been held captive by rebel troops for six days and their silence was due to the horror they felt at the airport. She then thought “I was ashamed to realize that I had judged them; I should feel lucky to be in their company”. I cannot tell you how many times I judged the people there in my first weeks, in my attempts to rationalize certain racial stereotypes placed on the Mexicans. As time went on however, I found that the stereo typical “lazy Mexican” was usually a man who woke up before dawn and has put in a good 7 hours of hard physical labor before taking his afternoon “siesta” so he can have the energy to return to work later. It is far easier to pass judgment than to try to understand the things we look down upon and I think that traveling is the best way to learn this.
My final and favorite statement made my Angelina Jolie relates to the current political problem of securing American borders. Angelia very wisely summarized it by saying, “Our country and other countries will continue to have refugees crossing our borders unless we help strengthen the countries from which they come.” What many Americans fail to understand is the disparity of so many of these “illegal immigrants” that are fleeing from the political and financial situation imposed on Mexicans by the governmental trade agreements. I think that I relate so well to her perspective because I remember being at that point in my life and feeling these things and just wishing there was someway to write it and get it out to the world; or at least those who could care.
Angelina Jolie "Notes from My Travels"
