Open Your Eyes! Please?!
Last week, I returned from the Phillipines. I was there for my son's wedding. The Filipino people are a wonderful, gracious, and beautiful people and my stay there was a dream. Our stay at the resort for the wedding was luxuriant. My son's in-laws, the Soriano family, welcomed my wife , my other son, Nick, and myself into their home and included us into their family even though we were strangers. Again it was living a dream come true and this part of my trip was a check-off on my bucket list.
The trip was so wonderful that I have hesitated to even post this but my heart was stung deeply and I have to make mention. When we were in the city of Manila, we were stopped at a traffic light and a 3 year old little girl knocked on our car window. She was naked from the waist down and was begging for money. We were told before hand that something like this might happen and that we should not give money because it only hurts them more. That they are being pimped out by adults and the adults abusively take the money and the kids don't get fed. That giving them money actually makes it worse for them. This little girl had the look of quiet desperation on her face. A look that should NEVER been seen on a 3 year old. We drove off and my heart was torn to bits and her face is seared into my memory. While we did not visit the slums directly we were able to see several examples of extreme poverty. People making homes in garbage pits and building shacks out of refuse. While I will not disparage the poor folk here, the opportunities to change your circumstances in America are far more available. In the Phillipines, there is no welfare system, no Social Security benefits, no homeless shelters. The government is corrupt. Many people can't get work because there is no work. Many of the people who do work, have to do so outside the country itself. People starve there on a regular basis. Those who can afford to do so hire house servants, drivers, and maids. This helps provide for those families as well. The people struggle and work whenever and however they can to survive. Many of the people who are working have advanced degrees but are pumping gas and working in hotels as waiting staff. The competition for any work is fierce.
This lesson makes me so grateful for what I have and where I live. I am so blessed. We often get discontent when we compare ourselves to other Americans. Before that happens, we should visit a country like the Phillipines, or India, or other countries where the poverty is so immense that it shuts us up immediately. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame myself, the USA, those countries, or God for the destitution. But I am deeply ashamed for the times that I have complained about my situation, when my stomach was full, and I had a warm house in which to live.
So what am I saying? Why am I posting this? I guess I am hoping that people would open their eyes to the world around them as well as being grateful to what they have been given. I am not saying solve the world's hunger problem. I am saying to do what you can when and where you can and know that until you are dead, things can get worse!
The trip was so wonderful that I have hesitated to even post this but my heart was stung deeply and I have to make mention. When we were in the city of Manila, we were stopped at a traffic light and a 3 year old little girl knocked on our car window. She was naked from the waist down and was begging for money. We were told before hand that something like this might happen and that we should not give money because it only hurts them more. That they are being pimped out by adults and the adults abusively take the money and the kids don't get fed. That giving them money actually makes it worse for them. This little girl had the look of quiet desperation on her face. A look that should NEVER been seen on a 3 year old. We drove off and my heart was torn to bits and her face is seared into my memory. While we did not visit the slums directly we were able to see several examples of extreme poverty. People making homes in garbage pits and building shacks out of refuse. While I will not disparage the poor folk here, the opportunities to change your circumstances in America are far more available. In the Phillipines, there is no welfare system, no Social Security benefits, no homeless shelters. The government is corrupt. Many people can't get work because there is no work. Many of the people who do work, have to do so outside the country itself. People starve there on a regular basis. Those who can afford to do so hire house servants, drivers, and maids. This helps provide for those families as well. The people struggle and work whenever and however they can to survive. Many of the people who are working have advanced degrees but are pumping gas and working in hotels as waiting staff. The competition for any work is fierce.
This lesson makes me so grateful for what I have and where I live. I am so blessed. We often get discontent when we compare ourselves to other Americans. Before that happens, we should visit a country like the Phillipines, or India, or other countries where the poverty is so immense that it shuts us up immediately. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame myself, the USA, those countries, or God for the destitution. But I am deeply ashamed for the times that I have complained about my situation, when my stomach was full, and I had a warm house in which to live.
So what am I saying? Why am I posting this? I guess I am hoping that people would open their eyes to the world around them as well as being grateful to what they have been given. I am not saying solve the world's hunger problem. I am saying to do what you can when and where you can and know that until you are dead, things can get worse!
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