A Meaningful Life Experience

An anthropology teacher from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Tara Deubel, entertained our luncheon table at the Culinary Institute yesterday.   Tara spent two years with the Peace Corps in West Africa.  She taught English to middle school-age children in a small village of Burkina Faso.  There were approximately eighty children in her class, each of whom believed that being a student was a privilege.   They were always well behaved and respectful.  In fact, as a teacher, Tara was revered in the community.  She relished the simplicity of life in this community.  Tara's perceived hardships were hers alone.  This community had no knowledge of, or comparison to a different lifestyle.  Tara presented a riveting illustration of life in West Africa, which left me with many comic and heartwarming visuals.  The children's fascination with an empty raisin box, retrieved from Tara's garbage, or the gratitude and intrigue from a simple pen, has me yearning to learn more and behold a meaningful adventure in goodwill.