I went to Nicaragua recently. I do not wish to talk about the events of the trip in this blog necessarily but rather what I learned and hope to continue to take with me through out my life.
First, we in the first world countries have it made. We have the luxury of knowing that when we turn on our tap water will come out every time. Most have the luxury of knowing that when we turn on a switch light illuminates that space. I went to Nicaragua last year and came home thinking and hoping that I would be more conservative with the water I used. This time I come back thinking the same thing hoping that it actually sticks.
I sit here and I think of the poverty that I have witnessed in Nicaragua. In Granada, barefoot children wearing dirty torn clothing would come up to us wanting money and probably food. Their barefoot mother was not far behind carrying a baby on her hip. I then think of the children in the countryside who had absolutely no access to clean water, their houses were made of sheet metal roofs and wood that barely made their walls. Their wells were often dried up and the women have to hike a long way to get water. The water was never clean and safe for us to drink therefore making it unhealthy for them to drink. These children who we think are impoverished and somehow without are the happiest children. We were not there to pull them out of their poverty and somehow make them rich. We were merely there to improve their physical health. I do not shed tears just for the children who were begging from us but also the handicapped boy who laughed and smiled with us as we walked through their community in the country. I cry about their happiness and their humility. I cry because I have so much to learn.
