Thick Skin and Many Tears.

I want to ask you an honest question. How many of you have seen poverty and turned your back to it? I ask because I live in a country that has a 92% poverty level. Poverty here is everywhere you go and there is no turning your back, no matter how hard you try.

Last week my family and I waited at a local gas station to meet up with some friends and follow them to our destination. While we waited, my family witnessed first hand a child about my daughter Emma's age, carry her infant brother on her back and beg for money or anything that could be given her. We are talking about an 7-9 year old girl who had nothing and had to beg. We were told to not give money for security reasons and because they will continue to bother you for more.  This is where my heart literally breaks and I cry and cry. I have nothing to give her. I have to turn my back to this child and hide my face. 

Seriously, here my family sits in a car with clean clothes, shoes, a full belly, and new iPhones. We have everything we would want, yet a child stands by my window with nothing but tattered clothes, no shoes, and was probably very hungry. 92% of the Malagasy people live in some type of poverty. Everyone I talk to says that after awhile you become accustomed to seeing this and you grow a thick skin. I'm not sure that I will be able to do this. I know that the world has poverty everywhere, even in the United States. All I ask is for you to imagine living in poverty? I dare you to try for one day to imagine where you will sleep or what meal you will eat. Maybe this will help us to learn to give more than we expect to receive. 

Here is a view from our balcony.