The Life-Changing Video

In June 2007, I was invited to attend my Uncle’s wedding to my now-aunt Inday in the Philippines. Driving through the town Inday grew up in (Bacolod in Linao Del Norte), I soon saw the house I was to stay in: a nice, new, sturdy red brick building. It was far better than any other house on the street—nay, far better than any house within many blocks. And when I went to Camiguin Island, I stayed in a fairly decent hotel. However, there were little mini villages consisting of about 15 – 20 buildings on each side of the road. There was nothing but forests between the villages. It is within these “mini-villages” that I witnessed what I thought was extreme poverty. The houses were incredibly small and not built well. Most of the children were wearing minimal clothing. One thing’s for certain—they didn’t have much.

I came back from the wedding a changed man—or so I thought. My intent was to be thankful for what I have, and to not want the next best thing…, that what we had was more than enough, and that perhaps I should get rid of what excess material wealth I have. It lasted maybe a week…

Fast forward 3 years.

In my cultural geography class, we watched a movie about the Kibera slums located just south of Nairobi, Kenya. This place was by far the worst place I have ever seen. How hundreds of thousands of people can live in these conditions is just mind-boggling. Running water is virtually non-existent, the equivalent of $4 per day (or maybe it was per week) was considered good pay. Here’s the worst aspect: there is one toilet per 1,100 residents—with no running water or sewer system. Indeed, people are hired to manually clean out them out with buckets.

When my family first moved into the apartment where we’re still residing, the water pressure would drop so that our showers would consist of a little dribble. I’d complain and say things like, “Really (I can’t get a true shower)?!” You will never hear me complain about low water pressure ever again.

When I have the ability to leave the college life and afford to go elsewhere, I pray to God that I will be able to make a change for at least one family living in poverty. Not just by way of donating money to an organization, but to physically go to those places and help out. Until then, I’ll pray for us all…that we would choose to become more aware of what’s happening elsewhere on our planet, and not just within our own lives.