Comments, Observations and Why?

I thought I would add a few photos of Cochabamba outside of the Santa Cruz soup kitchen to give you an idea, although only a small one, of how different life is from ours. Although poor, hungry, and having limited clothing, the people here are very happy and proud. They are not materialistic as we are because they haven't been exposed to luxuries and spoiled like us. In a way I envy them for not knowing the spoils that surround us. Isn't it sad when we worry about whether our Ipods, cell phones, computers, cars, etc... will function and yet so many in our world, including here in the U.S go hungry and without basic necessities. We have learned to block it out. We have become desensitized to people hurting and starving.

Here in the U.S. we have programs and resources which help a little. Unfortunately they don't solve or eliminate the problems completely even though we like to try to convince ourselves that they do and therefore we don't feel the need to get any more involved in helping our fellow neighbor, because the government will take care of them. We also have those who like to bleed the system and not help themselves.

In places like Cochabamba, Bolivia there are no resources, programs or government help. The help they receive is from each other and us through church programs. The following are photos of the street life in Cochabamba. Note there is no refridgeration for the eggs, fish, poultry, pork and meat.

One observation was that of a man sitting on the sidewalk selling fish. The fish was placed on a tarp on the sidewalk while he sharpened his filleting knife on the curb.

You will notice that most merchants sitting on the ground and many of their items are on the ground level. Some did have a stool or other small chair if they were lucky.

Another observation we all made is that there seems to be plenty of food for sale and plenty of people to consume it, but very little money to purchase the food. Where does it all end up? Rotting? Wasting? Why?

The people we met at the Santa Cruz soup kitchen did not waste anything. They even salvaged the bones from the chicken after we ate.

The purpose of these photos is not to exploit or embarrass anyone, but rather to show the need for all of us to care.

You can double click on any photo to enlarge it.