Ever seen real Third World poverty? How do you get it off your mind?

[raccoon]

I visited a Third World country last fall, on a one-week mission trip. During the day the group would go out to a poor neighborhood and set up medical clinics.

The people were dirt poor. Many had lice in their hair. The houses were usually one-room shacks with dirt floors. Windows were a hole cut in the wall. They had no running water; they collected rain water in cisterns. Toilet paper was a luxury. We were told to bring toilet paper with us when we went out every day, for our own use.

It still haunts me. I keep thinking, there but for the grace of God/Goddess/FSM, go I. There, but for just happenstance, go I. It would seem to me that in places like that, suicide rates would be in the stratosphere. Maybe they are, I don't know.

Your thoughts?

[thereismore]

1. I think about it often. Meanwhile, American kids throw away "crust"

from their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or throw away the sandwich whole. In a California supermarket there are swimming lobsters caught in Maine. How and why in God's name are we doing this?

There is hell to pay.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Yes, I've seen true poverty in other countries. It's very distressing.

I doubt that some of these people would ever think of suicide... it's just the way life has always been for them and they lose many members of their families due to disease, starvation, and war. I also think that some even 'enjoy' life in ways we never can. They are more attuned to the earth and have stronger tribal/communal/family ties.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I remember them every time I start to feel sorry for myself for how "poor" I am.

[YOY]

4. Forgetting about it is not what you want to do.

Just remember and be grateful for what you have and try not to get sick at others when they show pride for wealth they did not earn nor merit.

As for depression and suicide: They don't know what they don't have usually. Many have never been to a developed country let alone a develped city in their part of the world. They never had and therefore cannot fathom until they realize truly what others have in order to be depressed beyond compare.

I've seen it myself.

[cbayer]

5. The problem is that most Americans have never and will never see it.

As long as they can stay oblivious, the American public will remain apathetic to the needs of the rest of the world. Darfur is the most glaring example of this, IMHO.

[HamdenRice]

6. I think you really have to live with them to understand

With a one week mission, you are basically standing outside, looking in, not really understanding what's going on from their perspective.

I've lived in Africa, including plenty of time in village Africa, and you come to realize that poverty is a condition in their lives that does not entirely define their experience. They're real people with whole other aspects of their lives, and perhaps the scariest weirdest part is that in some ways, many of them are happier and more well adjusted than most of us are.

Also, in my experience many of them have a much clearer big picture of why they are poor than the overwhelming majority of Americans do.

I guess my overall point is that you should try to get an experience in which they are humanized to you and not just defined by their poverty.

[Douglas Carpenter]

13. I live part of the year of the Philippines which is certainly quite poor by western standards

And I have also found that the rural life does indeed seem quite happy and carefree in spite of overwhelming poverty.

I do find a distinct difference between rural poverty and urban poverty. In the rural barrios the people are probably in terms of actual possessions usually much poorer than those in the urban slums. However, the atmosphere and the general mood among the rural poor does seem to be almost spontaneously joyful. While in the urban slums there seems to be considerably more stress and resentment.

But in either urban or rural areas, I have no doubt but what the average Filipino is considerably happier and more content than the average American. I tend to suspect it is largely because of the extended family structure which creates a sense of belonging and security that most of the Western world has long lost.

I must say though that the plight of abandoned children and other homeless and famliless people wandering the streets of Manila and other urban center is one of the saddest sites I have every witnessed.

[Warpy]

7. I've found that people living in the most horrible conditions

have one thing we lack in this country where we're consumers and not citizens--the capacity for joy. That's what keeps them going while I find more and more people here sinking into despair as the economy sours.

That doesn't mean we don't work to improve those conditions. It just means we have to recognize that "stuff" doesn't make anyone happy.

Health care is 99% sanitation and 1% medication. That shows us one of the places we need to start improving their lives.

[mrs_p]

17. capacity of joy

beautiful phrase. thanks for your post.

[Skidmore]

8. You never get it off your mind.

You come back and work to rid the world of poverty while opening your eyes to the real poverty that exists, but is ignored, in our own nation. The poor are in plain view with many a blind eye turned to them.

[Hydra]

11. Thank you for saying that

I take a lot of flak for pointing out the poor in America here in DU...in fact, I get more flak here than I do in real life when I talk to people about fixing things here and eliminating poverty altogether.

Poor and powerless- how the uber-rich like to see their "lessers."

[librechik]

9. can't--always in the back of my mind

the suffering of traibla people is an ongoing agony to me, since I have seen it personally, I can't pretend it doesn't exist.

Every American should be forced to experience this reality at least once. maybe then we'd stop being so elitist and clueless. (not likely--apparently theres' nothing much we can't ignore...)

[L. Coyote]

10. Go live there for a few years, then get back to us on whether you want to come back here!!

You might be surprised by which is your preference once you overcome cultural biases.

[tismyself]

12. You don't

have to visit a third world country to see exactly what you have described. It exists here in the USA as well.

Have you ever seen the work of Shelby Lee Adams just for starters?

[Snotcicles]

14. Kevin Carters 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner still haunts me. nt

[Cleita]

15. I have and I've never got it out of my mind, however, I see it

now with our homeless. Our homeless don't even have a one-room shack with a dirt floor.

[mrs_p]

16. yes, i have

spent time in india, mexico, ecuador, guatemala - in all i worked with organizations serving the poor. i want to preface my thoughts with (1) please don't think i am romanticizing poverty and (2) i don't mean for anything i say to be patronizing...

so on to my clumsy thoughts: i found a different life perspective among folks in these places. priorities are way different than here, with family and community as the main focus - materials, not so much - and that we are the ones that should be pitied. (i don't remember suicide being a major problem but haven't really researched it either.) also, i don't think that there is that much of a difference between peoples from developed and undeveloped countries; most of the people i met are just hard working folks getting by on whatever resources they have and were extremely generous to me - i think that we would be the same way if we were living under the same conditions (the great depression comes to mind).

the family of a young boy i befriended lived in a 5'x10' room in a calcutta ghetto and when they invited me over for afternoon tea i guiltily accepted. they had nothing in that room except a small stove, a stool, and a couple of blankets. yet, their generosity was overwhelming. mom spent most of the morning making snacks (and probably used up much of their money to do so) for us. of course, there is no way i would have wanted them to go out of their way for me, but it was important for them to meet me and vice-versa. i found that relationships were the most important aspect of life for me there. the people i met were poor, but in some ways happier than we are. back here i am always amazed at how much we have, but how lonely we are.

my last thought: i truly hope that you never get it off your mind. and i mean that in a nice way. please hold on to this experience and bring it with you everywhere you go and remember it in all your relationships.

[aikoaiko]

18. The garbage gleamers always get to me.

:sad: