A sensible bit about what makes a person poor and then a few random photos!

First, the serious bit, and then an odd selection of photos from the past week - from cocktails to cockerels!!  

What makes a person poor?

Every now and then I like to write a sensible blog post so here it is!!  I have been reading a book called ‘When Helping Hurts’ about how to help the poor without hurting them and it really gave me food for thought.   The book talked about four different kinds of poverty:

Poverty of spirituality is to do with our relationship with God.  It occurs when we try to live our lives without God and make it on our own.  We are meant to be in a relationship with God and when we ignore him or reject him, we suffer a lack of spiritual intimacy in our lives. 

Poverty of being is to do with our relationship with ourselves.  If we have too high an opinion of ourselves we can become proud and insufferable but if we have too low opinion of ourselves we can suffer poor self esteem so we need a healthy balance. 

Poverty of community is to do with our relationships with others.  Sometimes our relationships break down or we don’t make time for people who are important to us and when that happens we suffer a lack of community.

Poverty of stewardship is to do with our relationship with creation – the world around us.  When people suffer from lack of material goods through their own fault or because of corrupt, unjust or oppressive systems.

The premise of the book is that when you look at different types of poverty we discover that actually all of us are poor in one way or another.  We in the West often think of the poor people in the third world who need material goods but forget that we are often poor when it comes to building relationships, in the ways we view ourselves or in our relationship with God, so there is no ground for us to feel superior in any way.

Indeed, since living here we have seen the most dreadful poverty (lack of material possessions and often lacking in self esteem and confidence) and yet a richness in relationships both within communities and in the deep rooted faith of the people.  Conversely we have seen people in our own country who have everything money can buy materially but are poor in their relationships, community, self-esteem or faith.   

This book has certainly given me food for thought and I am thankful for this opportunity to gain from the wealth of the people here as well as to help them in their area of need. 

 OK so now for the odd selection of pics!

 

 

At a hotel where we stayed for a wonderful hot shower!

 

A lovely old colonial style building.  Apparently Edward VIII once stayed here, as did Prince Charles and Mick Jagger!

  

Happy hour! 

 

Yummy cocktail!

 

A pretty lighthouse near the mouth of the Demerara River - built by the British but no longer in use.

A rare rainbow spotted from our house.

The rainbow again - there is hope!

Not a good pic but look closely and you can see a very young child riding on the back of a motorbike with no helmet!!

When visiting a school we found this poor puppy in the yard - we saw a boy trying to kick it and managed to stop him but dread to think what happened once we left. :-(

Cockerel in the school yard!  Of course!

 

 This was taken from the classroom window and shows the school toilets - the smell was very overpowering!  Yuk!

 

Further to my 'education' blog - this my friends is the sum of one school's library.  Very sad.  Anyone want to send us some children's books?????