All We Need is Love – Zac’s Quest to South Africa

This post is written by Zachary Brown, a United Planet volunteer and current senior at the University of Central Oklahoma. He has volunteered with United Planet in both South Africa and Costa Rica, and is currently the United Planet representative at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Zac during his Quest in South Africa

Growing up in America, I was blessed with a loving family and all of the essential aspects of life such as food and shelter.  I never had to wonder whether or not my parents loved me, and I never had to wonder when or if my next meal was coming. I lived a carefree life and was blinded by the parameters that are the borders of America. Even still, I was always wanting more: more food, more material belongings, more time with my parents… whatever I had, I wanted more.

Unfortunately, it took several years of that selfish mentality before my eyes were opened and my horizon expanded. I realized I could drag through life, or I could make an impact in the lives of others. The most pivotal moment of this new-found insight came to me in South Africa while I was volunteering abroad with United Planet.

I took a school trip to South Africa to volunteer in a local village teaching English to the underprivileged and poverty-stricken children of the Langbos village. When we first arrived, the children went crazy. They wanted to run and play with us, but what they wanted most on that first day were the reflective pieces of glass guarding our eyes from the sun, more commonly known as sunglasses. These children barely had livable houses to live in, in fact most of them didn’t. The village was comprised of mud huts the size of most our bedrooms. These mud huts housed upwards of 15 people without running water or electricity. My point is that these children had never seen sunglasses before. They were completely fascinated by our sunglasses and it was a rare moment to see someone from our group wearing their sunglasses on the first day as the the kids were constantly taking them. I was already overcome with emotion seeing such joy come from such a minuscule thing. In college, free sunglasses are given out almost daily and then thrown away. Yet, in Langbos, South Africa sunglasses were the only thing these kids wanted… or so I thought.

On  the second day, one of the most life-changing moments occurred right before my eyes. While I was conversing with a friend, one of the children of the village walked up to me with her hands out.  Without even looking at her or saying a word, I took off my sunglasses and gave them to her. The little girl, about four years old, immediately dropped the sunglasses to the ground in such a way that those sunglasses could not have been any more meaningless to her.  She then climbed into my lap and gave me the warmest and best hug I have ever received.  With tears in my eyes, I stopped my conversation and just focused on loving this child. That was the day I realized that in this world, all we need is love. There are many material things that are nice to have, but at the end of the day, happiness comes from someone loving us.

Since returning from South Africa, I have been dedicated to simply loving those around me whenever I can. I believe that any type of volunteering is an expression of love and love is what makes the world go ‘round. In the words of John Mayer, “Love ain’t a thing, love is a verb,” and I believe it is our job to love those who need it most.  It is our job to go into our own communities and love all people and children who need it. Actually, I see no reason that we cannot love everyone because all anyone really needs in this world is love.