Update

I've added some new pictures to the series at left. They're a little small now, but I intend to link them to larger versions in the near future. These are all pictures I took while on a mission trip to Haiti in March of this year. I went there with a construction crew to help with the setting up of an orphanage in the capitol city of Port-au-prince. My task was to build desks and chairs for the kids. We were to build thirty sets in the week that we were there. The kids were not shy about lending a hand in the least. It made me think. We have kids here in the U.S. going to therapy because they can't seem to cope. They've got every necessity met, they have nearly everything they could ever want, yet they can't seem to handle it.

How many times have you heard someone talk about when they were kids, how they had so much, everything they could ask for, and how happy they were? Not too often, if you ask me. I can think of several times when I have heard stories of not having anything as a child, about making your own fun. I know someone who—now quite comfortable—never seems to tire of telling the story of when she was child and her parents never owned a home. Her and her sisters used to go to bed in the summer with an oscillating fan in their attic bedroom and wait in anticipation of the breeze blowing in each one's direction in turn.

How many times have you heard someone say, 'We didn't have much, but we had each other.'? You hear of people who've finally made it, and realize it's not all it's cracked up to be. They opt out, they say the money didn't make them happy. Some even chuck it all, and unplug as it were, from the rat race. (See Not everyone chooses a life of ease. from 'God at the Edge, Niles Elliot Goldstein' as presented in Daily Dig ).

But I digress. I was talking about the kids in Haiti. The mean life expectancy there is around 52. You don't see people in wheelchairs. You don't see elderly people. This is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Yet, the children I met, ranging in age from 2 years to 16 years were remarkably happy. We had to use a generator to work. The public utilities are sporadic at best. The kids were advising me on how to start the generator! How many ten-year-olds here would be able to do that?

It just amazes me that compared to us, these kids have nothing and are noticably happier. It's makes one re-consider what's really important. Should we really be so enraged at the guy who cuts us off in traffic? And, having the modern conveniences that we do, we should appreciate them as such, not as a given, or a necessity. It's okay to enjoy a hot shower, but be mindful of the fact that not everyone is so priviledged. Be ready, willing, and able to do without, thus making the comforts that much more enjoyable.