POST by FRAN: My 2 cents worth

The other day I received a text message from a friend of mine, it said:

I cry for not having the brand of shoes that I want, but I saw a man giving thanks to God for having feet. I ask God 'why didn't you give me blue eyes?' but I saw a blind man say 'THANK-YOU FOR A BEAUTRIFUL NEW DAY!' I get mad when I have to walk because I get tired, meanwhile a boy makes his pace happier in his wheel chair. I get lazy when I have to get out of bed, meanwhile others are fighting in a hospital bed attached to a machine, the ones that your life depends on. Always give thanks to God for what we have, it's not a  burden, it isn't hard to say 'thank-you'!

I really thought about this, and it came to me; the poor don't really have much but each other, and the rich have more than just each other and they sometimes take their richness for granted.

I've seen that richer families usually fight and want more and more, and poorer families love and care for each other. Here in Nicaragua I've seen that the father often has a drinking problem, but the rest of the family stays together.

 

I go to a poorer area in Nicaragua on Saturday mornings to pray for the families that live in little houses that the government built.

On one occasion a team of 78 "gringos" (as the Nica people call white people here) from the US came to our little Saturday morning activity. They ALL had the newest pair of shoes and the best phones and cameras and the best clothing brands and hair accessories. They were really nice people but they all had the BEST everything!

The place we went to was smelly and unpleasant, more than what they were expecting: cooking outside over a fire with a wooden homemade spoon, starving skinny dogs sniffing all over the place, washing clothes outside by hand and cleaning the dishes in the same water. It was very different to what they knew and to what they thought they were coming to.

I was placed as a translator for one group of about 10 people, they were young and excited, but all of them looked fresa (posh).

The first house that we went to one of the visiting girls started to cry. At the second house another of the visiting girls started to cry. By the sixth house 5 of the girls were in tears. I was surprised at this because I've been seeing people in extreme poverty for about 4 years, whereas they have only been here in Nicaragua for a week or so. Some of them have been on a few missions trips, but other than that this really was an impact on most of them.

I got a huge shock when I walked into one house and saw a pretty woman on a little old laptop. That just showed me that the family would try so hard to help out with their daughters' studies and as a family there CAN be change, BIG CHANGES, but it takes work. That day I felt proud, not for myself but for the family helping their young daughter. When I asked to pray for them the mother said "actually I would like to pray for YOU."