a world collision

Well, it's official.  I suck as a "blogger."  Six months in Haiti and I put up nine - yes, just nine, posts.  I'd like to blame that entirely on the sketchy internet that we had down there, or perhaps on the frequent power outages, or even on my schedule that was so chock-full of ministry I simply didn't have time to "blog" - but alas, none of the above would be true.  

So here I am, having been home for two and a half months (seriously, has it been that long?) and I'm finally attempting to catch-up (note that I said 'attempting' - thus ensuring that if I forget to post anything beyond this one, you can't hold it against me).

To begin my post-Haiti posts, I'm going to tell you a little bit about this huge major conflict that has been going on my head since stepping off the plane in Miami on April 1.  Below is a brief outline of that thought process while walking through the airport:

First thought: "Dang. Look at all the blancs."  

Second thought: "Dang. Listen to all the English."

Third thought: "Dang. How much money was spent on the pretty posters and fake plants and on that ridiculously long hallway, and how many families on the saline could have eaten with that money?"  

Thus began the long, tumultuous and ongoing battle between the thoughts in my head and the world around me now.  Haiti is the 2nd poorest nation in the world.  That means that every time you walk outside you see children with orange, patchy hair who are literally starving to death.  That means that when you go to the market you see biscuits made out of dirt for people to eat.  That means that the kids down the street are playing games with sticks and salvaged trash.  That means that every morning you have to choose who you will hire for the day and who you will not; essentially - who will eat today, and who won't.  That means that kids come to your front door asking for food.  That means that people are sick and are dying from diseases that could be cured with a simple antibiotic.  That means that clean water is hard to come by.  That means that people are building their houses with sticks and mud on foundations of trash and solid waste.  

That means that when you come back to the land of plenty known as America, you feel sick to your stomach.  So really, what would it look like if those two worlds collided, and not just in my head - but in real life? 

I saw a picture the other day of two rich kids playing on their computer, lying on the floor of a dirt house while a poor kid in the background swept around them.  It was both disgusting and beautiful because it described without words the confusion stuck in my head.  In the back of my mind I heard Michelle Tanner's friend Teddy say "that would NEVWWR happen!" and he was totally right: it wouldn't.  

Or would it?  You would never pick up your computer, iPod, cell phone, TV, and microwave and stuff them into your fancy-shmancy Coach luggage and travel to one of the poorest nations in the world just to lie on the floor of a dirt house and email your friend Jane about that beautiful new silk dress you just found online and HAVE to have (assuming of course that your computer/phone connects to a satellite and doesn't require a wireless internet connection... I don't need any snarky comments saying "duh that would 'nevwwr' happen because the dirt house isn't wireless"). But really.  

What if every day you set aside your Tim Horton's money and used the sum to sponsor a child in Haiti? Or what if you traded in your new car for an old clunker and used the extra money to buy a cow for a family in Ecuador?  Or what if you stopped buying bottled water and used that money to dig a well in Sierra Leone?  What if you didn't bother with replacing your worn carpet, but instead did something about your neighbor's leaky roof?  What if you actually sold all you had and gave to the poor?  

As if, right?  wrong. 

In no way am I saying that I do the above in a sparkling (yet humble) fashion, or that I even do them.  I'd like to, but easier said than done.  Nor am I really intending to end this post with a thought-provoking 'this will change your life' easy to follow formula for becoming globally minded.  I simply am expressing the marvel that I have regarding how easily we here in the states throw away money on making things look pretty, when there are people that I know personally who are starving to death on the saline in Anse-a-Galets.  Do you feel sick yet?  I do.  

What really makes my stomach churn now is when I look around my bedroom and think "Boy, I like my stuff. It's nice, I really like it."  I don't think there's anything wrong with liking your stuff.  I downright love my Teddy Bear.  I'd cry if I lost him.  I also downright love that photo my grandpa gave me of my cousins and my sister and I when we were little.  I'd cry if I lost that too.  But what if I could get rid of that other stuff?  I don't really need three pairs of pajama pants, do I?  Nor do I need that old t-shirt from 7th grade that reminds me of that one day when that one thing happened.... The point being that I could stand to have less. 

Now, I'm not an entirely big fan of "quotes" and to be quite honest, I tend to mock the whole idea of "favorite quotes" by inserting really stupid ones where serious ones are expected (example: my senior "quote" in my Christian High School year book was "Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines."  The rest of the class had Bible verses, from the KJV, of course).  However, one of my friends has this quote on his Facebook page:

 "The rich must live more simply so that the poor may simply live."  

And I whole-heartedly agree.  So I challenge you (and me) today - in a country of complexity and gizmos and gadgets and stuff, to live more simply, so that the poor may simply live.