thanks

The other day I was driving over this dirt road covered in trash on my way over to pick up Becca from the school she's working at.  As I was bouncing along I saw a young boy walking on the side of the road holding a basketball.  His basketball had a huge slice down the side of it and it has probably been a long time since it had held any air.  As the boy was walking along he was stuffing the ball with empty plastic bags he had found along the street.  If it wasn't going to work as a basketball, it sure could as a soccer ball.

Later on that day, Becca and I stopped at a nearby gas station to buy some drinking water.  While the guy was loading our filled water bottles into the back of the Montero I went over to talk with one of the pump attendants whom I'd gotten to know pretty well when I was here before.  He can speak english pretty well and would come to the Chapel whenever he had a Sunday morning off from work.  When I was here before, this guy was working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day and making a little more than 100 USD each month.  Now, a year later, this guy is still working the pumps, but now he's developed some kind of allergic reaction on his skin from being around the gas.  He's found some medicine that helps, but his skin is still a little discolored on his face.  Long hours, little money, and a skin allergy, yet this guy still will not quit his job because he knows the chances of finding another one is pretty slim.

I know if my basketball was broken, I'd probably throw the thing away and buy a new one.

I know if my working conditions were like my friend's,  I'd have quit a long time ago.

I don't think it's wrong to have the things I have in the States.  What is wrong is when I take them for granted and forget to thank the one who has given them to me.

It is humbling to live among these people.