Real Life

Being in a developing country has definitely thrown my life into rather sharp focus. I think somewhere I developed the ability to not really see poverty. Maybe it's an American coping mechanism that I absorbed with my Cosby Show and Halloween candy. Maybe it's just me avoiding the inevitable downer that lives of struggle can bring. But, lately there have been times when it's really thrown in my face... and then it's hard to miss.

I could describe some scenes (and Bryce thinks I'm a wimp for deciding not to) but somehow that seems disloyal when what I also see is that this country is totally upwardly mobile. It's forward thinking. It's developing.

This creates some interesting contrasts. Like the farmer riding his water buffalo through the rice paddy while talking on his cell phone. Or the new buildings going up all over, mostly through the physical labor of wiry men with carrying tons bricks up a ton of stairs. And the small time fruit vendor, a woman with two huge baskets full of pomelos on the back of her rickety bike, who is passed on the the street by a shiny new BMW SUV (honking wildly, of course). These are bright contrasts with the marginal living we frequently see (and sometimes experience vicariously through our hosts).

At risk of sounding trite I recognize the contrast to my own situation in life and find myself in awe of the abundance.