Simple is the New Complicated

We have so much and think so little of it, while there are so many other places that have so little and can turn it into so much more.

Living in such a fortunate area is something we take advantage of. Not many people really realize what we have and what we are able to do. It can be told and shown through pictures and videos, but there is no way to see how fortunate we really are without actually experiencing it firsthand. Yesterday I spent my morning sharpening pencils for the “babies.” At home, twenty pencils can be put into an electrical machine and eaten up into a point in no time. Here, there is no machine, there is no hand twisting sharpener, there is no “do it yourself.” Twenty pencils, one blade, and that’s it. I let teacher Doroth teach the children so I could take on the pencils. As I was hand sharpening, I just thought about all the effort that is put in for such a simple task. The most amazing part is that they are so appreciative. They don’t know the luxury of a machine doing it, they only know the simplicity of what they have now, and so for that they are grateful. We also have to copy each lesson by hand into each workbook for every subject. At home all we need to do is make one copy, place it on the glass, and make as many photocopies as we want. It’s amazing how easy some things are for us and how little we really know and care about. It is astonishing to me that, even though we have an excess of simple items that make things easier, we don’t think of giving them to others where they might be of better use. The things we have at home that would be so overlooked could be so treasured here.

Although the people here are less fortunate than many other people, they would never think to complain. Some people just don’t know anything better than what they have. But others, who do know what luxuries and privileges they don’t have, simply know how to live better. People who have so much are so used to everything that anything less wouldn't do. I know because I am guilty of it myself. I am not proud of it, but it is the way I grew up and what I was surrounded by. But these people, these people are in their right mind, small-minded with big hearts. They are the ones doing it right and it makes me disappointed that more people can’t live up to this lifestyle.