With this project, I gained a lot myself, selfishly maybe more than the children I met. I gained a much deeper understanding of life and its fragility. I witnessed first hand a complete 180 of not just one's life, but the lives of many. I started to really understand the essence of transience in life and learnt what attitude to have to life and what to pursue that will stay with one through wet and dry.
One thing I need to admit is how I felt at times throughout this project. I felt that this wasn't the right thing to do. Other people do not need me to bring up very heavy conversations with the children in order to give people a perspective and help them become more compassionate towards the refugees, or people in need. Yet, every time I would become overwhelmed with a heavier reality -- that this is simply not the case with our world; that we as human species haven't yet gained that higher meaning in life nor the simple ability to put ourselves in the shoes of others and have the slightest sort of sympathy for them. I'm sorry but I don't buy that it takes more than minimal effort to sympathize with these refugees, or at least the children among them. These children are like any other. They didn't come on the face of the planet with the the ability to hate or the knowledge on how to divide other humans into different piles, only caring about the pile they choose. They weren't born racists.
With that said and out of the way, I hope to do something bigger than sharing their stories. I hope these stories, and further projects that could stem out of this, to attach to our roots and not let a bunch of external factors and social constructs which have become so engrained in us take us further down this path away from unconditional peace and compassion.