Where Do I Live

After driving down the dirt roads of Uganda exactly one year ago I thought I knew what poverty was and that no poverty was worse than what I was then seeing. As I tend to be at least once a decade, I was slightly off.

Yesterday, Marshall and I met Raj. Raj lives in the next building over in our apartment complex, Sector 8, and he attends Asia-Pacific Tech where he is studying to be an engineer of some type. After talking about all sorts of things, including helping him understand why in the world two young guys would leave "America" for this place, we asked him how much his salary would be once he graduates and finds a job. Whether correct or not, he threw out a number in the $100K per year range. We concluded the conversation and promised to meet him the next morning at 7 to go for a jog. Then we walked back into our flat to find Gorilal doing his daily cleaning of our place.

Gorilal is our house attendant, hired by the school to cook our breakfast, do our laundry, and make sure the flat stays tidy and well stocked. Gorilal has a wife and three children. He knows exactly 10 English words and thinks "Good Morning" is the common greeting no matter what time of day it is. He loves to peer over our shoulders as we type out emails even though he can't understand a word on the screen. He was extremely proud the other day when he arrived back here from the grocery with a jar of diabetic orange marmalade (see Marshall's blog). He and his family live on less than $3 per day.

Gorilal's life is similar to that of hundreds of thousands of other Indians earning just enough at their job to survive; not to mention the hundreds of thousands more who have no job. The slums are full of families eating no more than one meal per day, but then there are thousands upon thousands outside the slum who don't have much more. Ananthi was just telling me today how one of the major problems many of the hospitals here see is a vast number of broken bones caused by a lack of calcium which stems from subpar nutritional food intake.

You see, in America we tend to have pockets for every class. There's a rich neighborhood over there and a middle class neighborhood over there and then there are some poor people way over on the other side of town, and if we don't drive over there and see their house and families, it's almost like the problem doesn't even exist. Poverty can't hide its ugly face here. Raj is about to make a lot of money in a few years, but he won't be able to look out his window without seeing the ragged effects of poverty all around him.

As I write this blog enty I'm laying half horizontal on my lovely, cushioned couch in my 3 bedroom, 8 bed flat, while only 100 yards away children are collecting and making cow dung patties with their hands to sell for fuel so their families can have at least one meal today.

So the question today is: If you were born into poverty would you rather be born into it in a rural setting such as the Ugandan backcountry where you may never see a "rich" person, or would you rather be born into a family living in a one room shanty made with whatever material you can find while your next door neighbor relaxes in his 3 bedroom, 8 bed flat while typing a blog entry?

I would say neither would be grand. So what can I do? I can start by being more aware of those around me no matter where I am in the world. Yes, I'll start there.....

He who gives to the poor will never want, But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses
Proverbs 28:27

Lord, hold my eyes open. Show me those in need. Give me strength to help and serve.