I saw real poverty in India for the first time yesterday. We spent at least an hour on the back of motorcycles and drove into an area I hadn't yet been. The place we ended up was a wealthy part of town, but the drive there opened my eyes to stereotypical India.
We were stopped in traffic, and I noticed a few people drifting amongst the vehicles asking for money. One of them caught my eye. Being one of two white people on the road, I was bound to stick out as a tourist. This woman (or what I thought was a woman) came over to me and began poking me, asking for money. I had nothing with me, but I had been told not to give money to anyone anyway. As it turns out, the transvestite beggars are a major thing in India. When I didn't give her anything, she clapped her hands at me (some sort of curse) and moved on to Sam. Shortly after, a younger girl came along pointing at her stomach and her mouth, trying to explain to me that she was hungry. It was far more depressing to see than the first time.
This is what I've learned: if someone is begging, give them food, not money. If a child is begging, you shouldn't give them anything, since it encourages the beggar's lifestyle. If you really want to help, donating money to an organization dedicated to helping the street kids is the best thing to do.
In the West, we are trying to save the world with our "green" movement. The truth is, if global warming is at all real, whatever we are doing to help is being completely undone by India. They don't have garbage cans on the street. They dump their garbage anywhere and everywhere, and then when the pile is high enough, they set it on fire. It smells awesome.
Another thing about India is that they haven't quite figured out electricity. They have power outages everyday. When we were stuck in traffic yesterday, one of the overhead wires basically blew up. I saw fire come from the wire.
I also saw two motorcycles collide yesterday. When I told that to Jack he laughed. He explained that you'd never see that in Canada. The two smallest vehicles on the road getting into an accident. Oh India. Everyone was fine by the way!
Tomorrow, Sam and I are helping out with an adventure competition for some school kids over here. It's going to be a lot of fun. Indian kids are crazy cute. As for today, we're staying in and working on some stuff for The Fisherman's Trust.
We were stopped in traffic, and I noticed a few people drifting amongst the vehicles asking for money. One of them caught my eye. Being one of two white people on the road, I was bound to stick out as a tourist. This woman (or what I thought was a woman) came over to me and began poking me, asking for money. I had nothing with me, but I had been told not to give money to anyone anyway. As it turns out, the transvestite beggars are a major thing in India. When I didn't give her anything, she clapped her hands at me (some sort of curse) and moved on to Sam. Shortly after, a younger girl came along pointing at her stomach and her mouth, trying to explain to me that she was hungry. It was far more depressing to see than the first time.
This is what I've learned: if someone is begging, give them food, not money. If a child is begging, you shouldn't give them anything, since it encourages the beggar's lifestyle. If you really want to help, donating money to an organization dedicated to helping the street kids is the best thing to do.
In the West, we are trying to save the world with our "green" movement. The truth is, if global warming is at all real, whatever we are doing to help is being completely undone by India. They don't have garbage cans on the street. They dump their garbage anywhere and everywhere, and then when the pile is high enough, they set it on fire. It smells awesome.
Another thing about India is that they haven't quite figured out electricity. They have power outages everyday. When we were stuck in traffic yesterday, one of the overhead wires basically blew up. I saw fire come from the wire.
I also saw two motorcycles collide yesterday. When I told that to Jack he laughed. He explained that you'd never see that in Canada. The two smallest vehicles on the road getting into an accident. Oh India. Everyone was fine by the way!
Tomorrow, Sam and I are helping out with an adventure competition for some school kids over here. It's going to be a lot of fun. Indian kids are crazy cute. As for today, we're staying in and working on some stuff for The Fisherman's Trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment