Life as it is

We have all seen the World Vision commercials on T.V. showing the poorest of the poor and images of crying children in despair. In my time in Africa so far I have not witnessed the stereotypical children that they have portrayed to audiences. A few days ago a part time worker at the compound named Veronica allowed us to see into her family's life. She was left by her husband with four children ages 16, 13, 10 and 1 &1/2 whom she lives with in her mud brick house. Within this house there is a single bed in which they all share, there food is kept in the same room so that it does not get stolen. Each day Veronica walks one hour to work and back and than she picks up her bucket from home and walks half an hour to fetch murky water from a hole in the ground. Some days she makes this trip twice, each time asking for aid to lift the bucket onto her head as one of her hands doesn't work properly. Although she is struggling and is on a list to receive a monthly ten pound bag of corn flour and doesn't have two fully functional hands, she raises her four children and she is happy. She is happy for what she does have, even if to use it seems like little to nothing. I see our daily waste, like a lid bringing joy to a small child he uses it as a toy he can run around with, the plastic bags we use everyday that you throw out constantly being used as a soccer ball bringing hours of fun to the many children living here. Even though they doo not have games systems or fancy toys they are happy because they have each other and value even the simplest things life has to offer us.