So it has almost been a week since I am here and I have already seen so much. It's a world of difference from the states. I think it finally hit me today when I was at the train station waiting for my train and staring out ahead. When you open your eyes and really look at the details of what is happening out there you realize how sad certain aspects of life are. You see shanty towns growing before your eyes, one day 2 houses the next day 4 and so on the community grows. People gather together whatever they can find- plastic, metal, wood, bricks, cloth, whatever it may to put together a small roof over their head and provide shelter to their little kids. Thats when it hits you when you see little innocent kids running around in this filth without any clothes using the ledge as a toilet as flys gather around them. Even when you look into their eyes you no longer see the innocence you see a life full of experiences. Kids that have nothing to eat, but yet they can still have a smile on their face and can still play as if they are still kids. Some have no idea what poverty is because everyone around them is just like them. You see a whole family working together to wash clothes with little kids scrubbing them as hard as they could to wash away the filth. Kids roamin around with dogs and goat and cows and who knows what else is there. It is such an opener because if you think about it there are very places in the world you will find poverty to this extent and the STATES is definitely not one of them. Even our poorest communities are better off. It is sad to see that people have to live such lives as if they are not even people. These people can't even start thinking about their health, the first thing on their mind is food. There is no running water everything is stagnant and full of trash and whatever else and there is no source of income. I have been seeing this everyday since I have come here but I never really SAW it until today. Its easy to just not focus on whats out there or to just look away even when its right in front of you. People do it all the time. I have no idea how to even begin thinking where to start resolving this problem.
Kids are on and off the trains all the time begging for money and its very hard to look away but sometimes you just have to. Yesterday there was a little boy and his younger brother dressed in a Frauk (dress). Both very cute. You could see the older one had been through a lifetime of experience in his young age but the little one still had that innocence you see in a childs eyes. The older brother began to sing various hindi songs while the little one was dancing around. All for just a few rupees.
I haven't written much about my work because its not the work that I am doing which is impacting instead everything I am seeing around my work is becoming the true experience.
I hope everyone who is reading this can take a second to appreciate all that we have been privileged to have and have been given throughout our lives. Seeing what I saw today really broke my heart :(
