The year was 1994.

I was in 4th grade. I remember a lot from that year actually- I remember loving my teacher, Mrs. Walters, I remember learning about Indiana history, making peanut butter pie the week we studied the Amish, I remember learning about currency with monopoly money and I remember when a girl in my class lost her dad through suicide. I remember really hating my bus ride and being scared of my bus driver who was mean with a capital M. And I remember winning my class spelling bee (later to lose big time against the other 4th grade champions).

And then, today, I was reading this blog and saw "1994" and "genocide in Rwanda" together in a sentence. This confused me because while I, of course, have heard about this, I don't remember learning or even hearing anything about that back then. Were teachers not teaching about it? Were people not even talking about it? I honestly don't know, but I'm guessing not because I know myself and I know that if they were I would remember it. 

How shameful is it that now I have to learn about something I was living through by googling it 20 years later?  

Goodness, people. What kind of bubble are we raising our kids in?

My gut tells me that we are not doing a good enough job of opening our kids' eyes to realities of this fallen world outside of America. And this is partly because we are not opening our own eyes. I know this because I myself am so pathetically naive. As much as I try to educate myself I am still not trying hard enough because I am still blind to at least 99% of what's happening. 

But, I do know a few things. 

I know that yesterday- nearly 300 men, women and children were murdered when the commercial airplane they were riding in was shot down by a missile. A missile.  

I know that 10% of all girls in Rwanda are sexually abused every year. 10%!

I know that in the US alone, sex trafficking is a $9 billion a year business. Yep, you read that right... in the good US of A.  

I know that it's estimated that at least 5,000 women a year are murdered in honor killings. (and most experts think it's actually at least 4 times higher than this)

I know that today there are more slaves than any other time in history. About 27 million of them.

I know that hundreds- hundreds- of babies are abandoned every single day in China. Just in China, just one country. And most of those precious babies are never adopted. 

Another thing I know is that I will make a lot of mistakes as a parent, but one thing I have committed myself to doing is being honest with my kids about this world. Because the thing is, they have zero chances of helping- if helping is something they want to do- if they don't know that help is needed. I owe that to them and I owe this world a whole lot more than what I've been giving it. 

PS: A few people have mentioned that they have tried commenting on posts but can't ... I just realized that I had "commenting" blocked. I have no idea how or why, but if anyone other than my mom actually follows along then you should now be able to comment now if you want to.