In Just a Few Key Strokes by Jamie Lowe

            In life there are times when we feel the need to go beyond our own limitations and comfort zones. This very brave venture and thirst can lead to a life-changing experience. My thirst was quenched with my travel with Habitat for Humanity to Egypt. Born and raised in the United States of America I can proudly say that I have been afforded certain luxuries. However, it is when those luxuries are stripped from you that you examine what caliber of a person you are. What will you do for another that does not directly benefit you? What will you sacrifice, both physically and mentally, to uplift another? These are questions that I asked of myself. Undoubtedly these may have been the same questions that meandered through the minds of the people in El Gazaar and Kolonas. Why would a group of Americans venture to carry tons of limestone and sand? Why would they work in the hot sun for no reward?

            The truth being that is was never a purely selfless act. While sifting sand I experienced the dynamics of a true giving relationship. Observing friends from different races, age groups and sexes working tirelessly to lift a family. Individuals bending their minds, bodies and spirits to melt into a perpetual ladder to bridge a family from where they once were to where they dream to be.

 My experience in Egypt wasn’t merely a testament to the fact that I plaster a wall, sift sand nor move limestone. It was a testament that I can move beyond my own limitations. It was a testament that despite a language and cultural difference the still underlying tone in a relationship is humility. It is the setting aside one’s own ideologies to melt with an unknown group to form a more harmonious entity.