SOBERING REMINDERS

SOBERING REMINDERS Today we spent an hour in the morning meeting with Principal Patricia and making plans for our teaching schedule. She took us around the school and into each classroom where we were introduced (or re-introduced) to the students and the teachers. It has been such a joy to see the children again, and the genuine smiles and cuddles have been so heartwarming. After our meeting we got into the van and Gerry drove us into town to do some grocery shopping and to try to get a SIM card for our phones. Try is the operative word as the process took the entire day and we still came home with no card!!! Getting things done here takes forever, and the process is very, very inefficient. We went to the market called Masala and it was heartbreaking and very uncomfortable. This is a local market and I can not even describe the dirty, dusty, smelly poverty stricken place to form a picture in your minds. I think the icing on the cake was walking past the chickens, live chickens….hundreds of them stuffed into huge cages waiting to be bought for $3 each. The overwhelming poverty here is so incredibly sad. I think on my last trip I was in such shock and spent the whole time absorbing the cultural differences that I was not emotionally connected to the sadness of the situation. This time I see everything with new eyes and the reality of these people's lives is truly depressing. To have nothing, and everyday is just hours on end of passing time in the hot sun and dusty conditions to simply go to sleep (and not in a comfy bed I might add, but rather on hard, dry ground with a mat if they are lucky) only to do it all over again the next day. Tonight I am humbled and sad, and feeling rather guilty for the pleasures and luxuries we all take so much for granted.