As I left Haiti this morning, I made a list of things that I noticed to be the same or similar between both communities I worked in this summer: the village in Kampong Cham, Cambodia and Terre Froide, Haiti. Overlaps in food, religion, daily life, the people and just the general culture. Here is what I came up with:
-Since they don't have all the nutrients they need in their meals, they fill up on what they do have: rice. Both countries had diets that were largely dependent on rice, it's cheap, available and won't leave them hungry.
-The shower process is essentially the same. The only real difference was that in Cambodia the water was already in the bathroom area whereas in Haiti we had to fill a bucket with water each time, but, after that, it's still a bucket shower.
-As soon as the sun sets, it's done. That's it. Not much else is going to get done because the main source of light just disappeared. After that, every one more or less just starts drifting home to go to bed.
-Early mornings… as I said, the sun is your main source of light, they go to bed early so they might as well be getting up early as well in order to utilise the hours of sunlight that they do have.
-Family and community. They have very few material possessions, so, they understand what they have around them that matters. The sense of family and community is a lot stronger in both those countries than I think, unfortunately, they'll ever be in most of our own societies.
-Running water and electricity don't necessarily come hand in hand. For us, they seem like givens, but in both communities there was only one place that had a bit of electricity from time to time, but neither had any running water whatsoever.
-Boredom: never an issue. I'm not sure they even know what the word means. They have each other and that can keep them entertained for hours on end. I've never seen any one of them with nothing to do and that shocks me a little bit. Here we are with a lot more stuff, yet always complaining of boredom. I won't get too much into this topic for the sake of this list, but it's something to think about.
-I came to understand that in both communities, the people know that they are classified under the term "poverty". I hate to say that they're poor because to me it seems like whatever they are lacking in possessions (if anything) they've made up for in life skills and values. But still, yes, they know that a lot of the rest of the world view them as poor.
-Understanding the outside. In addition to the last point, they also do have a general understanding that other countries aren't like theirs and again, basically, what others have that they don't.
-Values. They know what they value and they act on it. That's all I'm going to say to explain this point, but I think that says enough, because it's already more than I can say for many of the people I know.
-Gratitude. For everything they receive, they give back gratitude. There are no exceptions to the word 'everything', and that's the way it should be.
-Religion. The religions in Cambodia (Buddhism) and Haiti (Catholic) are rather different, but in both countries I saw that they viewed it as a big aspect of their lives. They use it to guide themselves through their lives.
-Hope, if not more (I will be blogging about this in more detail soon). Basically, either they're hopeful for positive change in their country or they've taken the next step and they're motivated to bring it. I witnessed both cases and it truly is great.
-History. Both countries have lived through a generally horrible past. Is it fair to say that that has impacted the number of impoverished people in the countries today?
-Culture. I find the culture in both countries is so much richer that what I generally encounter. It made me realise how much culture is dying in most developed countries. We're so concerned with advancing, that we're forgetting our roots and developing at the expense of our culture. I find that that's really horrible... more and more countries have little to no culture and that shocks me. Not so much in the UAE, but as a whole it's still a fairly young country that had a rich culture to begin with, we'll see where it stands in 20-50 years.
-Happiness. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, it's impossible not to notice how much happier they are than us. Why? We could learn a thing or two from them. (Read more about this topic here or in one of the upcoming Haiti blog posts).
LM
-Since they don't have all the nutrients they need in their meals, they fill up on what they do have: rice. Both countries had diets that were largely dependent on rice, it's cheap, available and won't leave them hungry.
-The shower process is essentially the same. The only real difference was that in Cambodia the water was already in the bathroom area whereas in Haiti we had to fill a bucket with water each time, but, after that, it's still a bucket shower.
-As soon as the sun sets, it's done. That's it. Not much else is going to get done because the main source of light just disappeared. After that, every one more or less just starts drifting home to go to bed.
-Early mornings… as I said, the sun is your main source of light, they go to bed early so they might as well be getting up early as well in order to utilise the hours of sunlight that they do have.
-Family and community. They have very few material possessions, so, they understand what they have around them that matters. The sense of family and community is a lot stronger in both those countries than I think, unfortunately, they'll ever be in most of our own societies.
-Running water and electricity don't necessarily come hand in hand. For us, they seem like givens, but in both communities there was only one place that had a bit of electricity from time to time, but neither had any running water whatsoever.
-Boredom: never an issue. I'm not sure they even know what the word means. They have each other and that can keep them entertained for hours on end. I've never seen any one of them with nothing to do and that shocks me a little bit. Here we are with a lot more stuff, yet always complaining of boredom. I won't get too much into this topic for the sake of this list, but it's something to think about.
-I came to understand that in both communities, the people know that they are classified under the term "poverty". I hate to say that they're poor because to me it seems like whatever they are lacking in possessions (if anything) they've made up for in life skills and values. But still, yes, they know that a lot of the rest of the world view them as poor.
-Understanding the outside. In addition to the last point, they also do have a general understanding that other countries aren't like theirs and again, basically, what others have that they don't.
-Values. They know what they value and they act on it. That's all I'm going to say to explain this point, but I think that says enough, because it's already more than I can say for many of the people I know.
-Gratitude. For everything they receive, they give back gratitude. There are no exceptions to the word 'everything', and that's the way it should be.
-Religion. The religions in Cambodia (Buddhism) and Haiti (Catholic) are rather different, but in both countries I saw that they viewed it as a big aspect of their lives. They use it to guide themselves through their lives.
-Hope, if not more (I will be blogging about this in more detail soon). Basically, either they're hopeful for positive change in their country or they've taken the next step and they're motivated to bring it. I witnessed both cases and it truly is great.
-History. Both countries have lived through a generally horrible past. Is it fair to say that that has impacted the number of impoverished people in the countries today?
-Culture. I find the culture in both countries is so much richer that what I generally encounter. It made me realise how much culture is dying in most developed countries. We're so concerned with advancing, that we're forgetting our roots and developing at the expense of our culture. I find that that's really horrible... more and more countries have little to no culture and that shocks me. Not so much in the UAE, but as a whole it's still a fairly young country that had a rich culture to begin with, we'll see where it stands in 20-50 years.
-Happiness. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, it's impossible not to notice how much happier they are than us. Why? We could learn a thing or two from them. (Read more about this topic here or in one of the upcoming Haiti blog posts).
LM
