KITN Homelands Analysis

            Typically, I relate my homelands analysis to my weekly service-learning session at Bridges. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to share a timely conversation I had with my UBER driver last week. It was as if I had received a personal guest lecture as a supplement to our coursework.
            I took an UBER to the airport from campus at the start of the long weekend. I usually endure a rather silent, awkward ride with UBER drivers, yet for some unknown reason (perhaps my excitement at the thought of returning home), I felt compelled to spark a conversation. When the driver mentioned that he was attending college, I asked him about his school and his course of study. The conversation quickly transformed into a discussion surrounding opportunities for social mobility in the United States. When he inquired about my own experience, I shared my belief that some people have more opportunities for upward mobility than others, depending upon their social economic status while growing up. The driver, however, firmly believed that in the United States anyone who is willing to work hard could earn a reasonable amount of money. His opinion was rooted in his own experience immigrating from West Africa less than a decade earlier. At this point in the conversation, he shared the story of his immigration and the discoveries he had made since arriving here. 
He originally came to study and immediately fell in love with the country’s government and its systems. He shared with me his appreciation for even the smallest of details, including clean streets and the reliable system for weekly trash pickup. The driver went on to reflect upon how his experiences in West Africa caused him to “live in both worlds”- a statement he repeated multiple times during our trip. The things he admired about the United States, for example, allowed him to identify areas for improvement in West Africa. As a result, he has recently encouraged his friends in West Africa to volunteer to pick up public trash and donate towards the installation of public trash receptacles there. I found that my driver had a profound ability to pinpoint the source of the challenges his homeland faced. For example, he mentioned the corruption of the government in West Africa, which he described as a type of oligarchy. He has concluded that the limited access to education there makes it easy for government leaders to take advantage of ignorant citizens. In West Africa, he explained, only 40% of adults have earned a high school diploma. My driver’s analytical abilities are what makes him intimately connected to Epeli Hau’ofa, the author of Kisses in the Nederends. 
Both the UBER driver and Hau’ofa speak about international policies and programs. Hau’ofa, however, uses Oilei’s ill body as an extended metaphor to illustrate these concepts. In the second half of the novel, Rovoni tells Oilei that the problem with his anus is related to a problem with his head (88). Babu agrees with this diagnosis, with the exception of the details about the tuktuks (99). It is during Oilei’s conversation with Babu that readers begin to understand the significance of this diagnosis. Babu explains that humans have a tendency to “isolate” (99) problems, which is why Oilei’s past treatments have been unsuccessful. Instead, he says that humans should understand that “All the problems in the world are connected,” (99). This advice indicates to readers that he is really commenting on international politics. While he is encouraging Oieli to consider the connection between the ailments in his head and his anus, he is simultaneously urging mankind to consider the connection between global issues. 
Like Hau’ofa, the UBER driver was aware of this interconnectedness. He knew that the lack of education and the government corruption in West Africa were linked to each other. Furthermore, he recognized that in order to improve West Africa’s lacking government systems, he had to look to other countries, such as the United States, for inspiration. These beliefs urge us as readers and listeners to think critically about global issues and collaborate in order to find solutions. 

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