We went to town today for lunch, nothing really out of the ordinary, but as we arrived at our restaurant of choice and stepped of the Tri-Mobile, the seemingly preferred method of transit here, we were greeted by a little girl begging for money, we proceeded to go inside and place our order.
As we sat in air conditioned stuffing our faces with Lumpia Shanghai, what I gather was chop sue, and garlic rice, with Ube Ice cream for desert, it began to rain and the mother of the little girl sat down outside the window with her two children. I could have probably been able to hold back my emotion if not for the smallest of the children with the open sores on its hands, probably from malnutrition and poor sanitation. Our total tab for three people with desert was PHP 302 roughly US$6.50, not much to most people but probably more that that family would see today. After paying up and leaving a tip for the waiter I held back some money and as we went on our way to some shopping and back to the comfort of the air conditioned room where I am staying, I gave the mother some money, was not much, and in ways I wish I would have given more, but there is only so much one person can do.
As I sit here typing this I wonder who is to blame for the poverty throughout the world and come to no easy answers some would say it it the mothers fault for not getting an education and finding a job, others would say the rich for not helping enough, some might even say that it is the people who are trying to help, and still others would say everyone is at fault. I don't know what the answer to the problem is I wish I did, maybe I just want to help myself feel better about having something when there are people without.
