Sierra Leone Reflective Essay

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This course has opened my eyes to various cultures and history I was unaware of before studying this course. I never had really put thought into how being so closed minded could be so detrimental to my growing process as a student, and as a human being. In high school I was enrolled in human geography. This class made it very apparent to me how I was so unaware of many places in the World. It brought attention to the fact that I was so closed minded and unaware of the things happening in the world around me. This was hard to grasp for me because it was such a learning process. This course again opened my eyes to realize how much I was unaware of and the necessity to grow as an individual by learning about the different countries. I am very …show more content…
I couldn 't comprehend not trusting my government to have my well being in mind. In the United States, we seldom feel that we cannot trust our government for our safety. Young boys were forced to fight in both the army and for the rebels. A fellow classmate, Andrew Choplick, talked about the “lack of leadership that was unitary caused so many unnecessary violent deaths brought upon each other by brothers”. Some boys who fought were the same age as my younger cousin. It is hard to grasp the idea that such young boys could fight in war. Sierra Leone had high poverty which did not help the environmental issues, such as mismanagement of their natural resources. I feel that countries who are in such a severe state of poverty have a more likelihood to be vulnerable to corruption. We discussed the long term affects of poverty in economics, but it did not hit me until learning about the people it affects. Ishmael Beah discussed the terrible things that he and the other boy soldiers went through during the war. I questioned how could such young boys be apart of such terrible destruction, then I realized that they were brainwashed. Beah wrote in his book, “I feel as if there is nothing left for me to be alive for”(Beah, 167). I cannot imagine feeling like there was nothing more for me. The country was in such poor conditions that most of the people felt like there was no hope. I find it sad that I had no heard of boy soldiers until social media brought it to light in 2007. It makes me sad learning about the devastating things that happened to such young children. In this lesson, I learned not only about the wars, but the young boy soldiers that were forced into them. Before learning about the devastation in Sierra Leone, I thought that the young boys had the choice to join. After learning the sad truth that they did not, It makes me question why I was so

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