Poverty in Latin America

This is a piece I wrote to publicize the poverty in El Salvador but also to criticize the ignorance of people around the world, including Americans. I'm thinking of going further with this but am looking to see if anyone actually likes it. Please comment. Any feedback is welcomed.

Life is so easy where you come from. It’s handed to you on a silver platter, gold spoon and all the fixings included. Because that’s the way life is for you people. You wouldn’t know life any other way. You’re so self-centered, caring only for the people in the close proximity of your own life; your own personal bubble. You have no idea what’s going on in my country. Not that you’d care if you did. I bet you couldn’t point to it on a map, without extensively searching, even if I paid you for it. I bet you’d need a clue. I wouldn’t need a clue to find yours. For god’s sake, it takes up the entire width the continent, leaving little space for my country to reside.  Yet with all of the space and power your country is known for, the people of my country know how to survive, at least the people I live amongst. If you got stuck in my country for a year, you’d go insane. I am an El Salvadorian Campesino; a farmer who takes everything off the land. Nothing is simply handed to us. I have to work for everything. If I don’t, we starve. I’m sure you don’t know what I truly mean, so let me spell it out for you.

Let’s start with the basics. If you counted your clothes, how many do you think you have? How many pairs of shoes? I wonder how much time you waste by trying to decide what to wear. Must be nice to have that many options. It’s never something I’ve encountered. Where I live, we’re lucky if we have two shirts: one for work and one for church. I’m lucky if I can buy a new pair of shoes for my kids. Otherwise, they run bare foot.  My kids aren’t the only ones that suffer. There are more. There’ll always be more.

An essential part of life is shelter, a home. Tell me about yours. Wow, 2 story: 3 bedroom, 2 bath, furnished basement, 3 car garage, full heating and electricity, basketball hoop in the front. Oh, you just redesigned your kitchen? Sounds amazing… Wanna hear about mine? We live in a 2 room house. You heard me right, I didn’t mean 2 story. We have a room that is our: kitchen, dining room, living room, and children’s bedroom all in one. Then we have a separate room for my wife and I, something to call our own. Our house is made of sticks and a mixture of mud. There are gaps that will never stay filled in, giving us holes where sun and wind can easily enter. It gets cold at night, so we stoke the fire instead of turning on the heat. Otherwise we just huddle together, feeding off of each other’s warmth. If we have to use the bathroom, we go outside. Oh that’s what you do when you go camping? Like on vacation to have fun? Hmm, come live in El Salvador for a while, it’ll stop being fun.

How are the schools where you live? Pretty nice, I’m guessing. Oh, the second grade class just got a new smart board? Yes, I understand the concept of a smart board; you don’t need to explain it to me. I’m not an idiot, I’m poor.  What about my kids? They go to school for now. If I can’t provide paper for them to write on, and books for them to read, they get beat. They physically suffer for my lack of money. Eventually they will have to stop going to school so they can work as well. Every little bit helps, and we rely on every little bit. I wish I wouldn’t have to pull them out, but that’s how life is for us. That’s how it was when I was a kid, that’s how it is for my kids, and there’s a good chance that’s how life will be for their kids. The cycle never ends; a never-ending cycle of misery.

I see you’re holding your new baby. Congratulations. What’s his name? Samuel. Very common, American name. I’m sure he will grow up to be a fine man. We just had a baby also.  Unfortunately, she passed on. From what you ask? Doesn’t matter… something you can take a pill for I’m sure. If only we could afford it. I couldn’t take her to the pediatrician because we don’t have one. Even if we did, there’s no way to pay for it. So I took her motionless body to the hillside and buried her amongst the rocks and flowers. Oh that’s what you did with your dog? That’s nice…I’m glad my daughter reminds you of a dog.

Gilmore Girls

My favorite type of humor is sarcastic humor. I don't mind dumb humor or silly humor but this one is my favorite. Lorelei and Rory Gilmore are mother and daughter but act more as best friends than anything else. Rory and Lorelei live in a town full of people with very strange people. These people, including Taylor and Kirk, are often subject to the sarcastic conversations between the two. They also tend to go off on random tangents talking about one subject and switching to the exact opposite of the spectrum but it still usually makes sense. Lorelei is nothing like her parents, which often leads to many sarcastic arguments and "under your breath" comments. The script and the acting job of this show makes me giggle still, even after seeing each episode multiple times.

Alabama teachers change grades

I read an article recently on the New York Times website that talked about the fact that teachers were changing the grades of their students in order to boost the level of academic excellence of the district. This irritates me because the whole point of "getting an education" is to actually learn something. By boosting their grades to passing doesn't help the student learn anything and the "education" they are receiving won't help them in the future. There's no point in studying if teachers are going to pass their students regardless of their performance in the classroom. In the beginning, the school may have seemed like a good school but now that the truth has emerged, no one will give credit to the students and teachers who actually deserved the praise. Going forward, everyone will be skeptical of those schools and teachers.

A Novel Blog

The new blog I've encountered was actually introduced to me by Dr. Wagner-Angell. It is called A Novel Blog written by S.E. White. She is a writer who has published "A Murder of Crows" --available on Amazon :). She uses the blog to promote the short pieces she has written. She has been posting these pieces on her blog since 2008, so there are a ton of them on there. I haven't had time to read them all, however the ones I've read are intriguing to me. Check it out: http://www.anovelweblog.com/


Viewing this blog has given me the desire to create my own blog page kind of like hers. Please feel free to check mine out too..I'd love for some input. I only have on up so far, but i'm working on more. Thanks!

http://maplesweet22.blogspot.com/