Learning about language has always fascinated me.
I remember taking a semester class during my freshman year with Bluffton High School teacher Deb Johnson in which we learned all about words — prefixes, roots, suffixes and all sorts of additional linguistic nuances that helped the English language make more sense.
A few years later, BHS teacher Billy Kreigh — who writes a column for us every few weeks titled “Here’s the Thing” — helped me understand the power of words as she guided us through her Honors English 12 course and taught us about the importance of word choice.
That love of language has stuck with me all of these years, and it was during my three-week trip to Africa in June that I learned a new word that has become one of my favorites.
In many ways, the word I learned in Rwanda is the only word I have to describe the people we met during our seven days there.
My wife and I had been in Kigali, Rwanda, for a couple of days when we visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to learn about the genocide that took place in 1994. We went to learn more and to remember the 800,000 innocent victims who lost their lives during the 100-day tragic event that happened when I was just 13 years old.
As you enter the memorial there is a big sign with the word Ubumuntu. It means humanity — goodness, generosity and kindness.
A person who has Ubumuntu is someone who has greatness of heart.
Greatness of heart — three simple words that when put together convey one of the most beautiful expressions of language I have ever heard to describe a person’s character and what we should strive to be like in our everyday lives.
One of my summer reads this year was James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits.” He dedicates part of the book to writing about how making small improvements every day make a big difference in our lives. Specifically, he writes that if you can get 1 percent better at something every day for one year, you will end up 37 times better by the time you’re done. It’s somewhat like how money invested and left alone for decades grows exponentially due to compound interest.
As Jen and I stood in front of the memorial sign with the word Ubumuntu, I couldn’t help but think how much better we could all make the world if each day all 7.8 billion of us showed more goodness, generosity and kindness — just 1 percent more a day would change the world, as Clear explains in his book.
Such a small daily shift would have immeasurable results.
I’m convinced, however, that the people of Rwanda are well on their way to figuring out this life hack.
I have been fortunate to travel to 33 different countries and meet countless kind people over the years. The people we met in Rwanda, however, are among the kindest and most compassionate I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know during all of my travels.
The people we met in stores, at restaurants, in hotels, at markets, on tours and every place else during our seven-day stint to Rwanda epitomized Ubumuntu — greatness of heart. Their Ubumuntu — goodness, generosity and kindness — was so evident in all they did that Jen and I not only noticed it everywhere we went, but we talked about it every day.
We both said more than once that the people we had spent the week with could teach graduate-level hospitality courses to students hoping to work in that industry.
Ubumuntu — it’s a word I think about every day. In fact, I bought a circular lapel pin that says Ubumuntu Greatness of Heart that I’ll wear to work every day to remind me what it means to be human — to be good, to be generous and to be kind.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
