There is a 15 year old girl that comes in several days a week after school to help me out around the house. She lives in poverty conditions just up the hill from our home. She sleeps on a twin mattress on the floor with 6 other people. She has no pillow, is cold at night, and rats constantly wake her while she sleeps. Yesterday she asked me about Canada for a school assignment. I told her the basic things like: Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world; it is divided into 10 provinces & 3 territories; it spans from the Pacific to the Atlantic ... "Is this what you wanted to know?" I asked her. "No, Ibu, does Canada have malls?" She wanted me to go deeper. And so I spoke of Canada's roads, homes, economy, medical assistance, schooling ... and she shook her head in amazement. "It's not fair, is it?" I said at the end. "We don't get to choose where we are born ..."I wonder what she thought about as she fell asleep last night. Will she dream of a better life? Will she study even harder to become the nurse that she dreams of being? Will she one day get the chance to go to university in a different country?For now I'll start by buying her a mattress ...
6 May 2011
Sleep
There is a 15 year old girl that comes in several days a week after school to help me out around the house. She lives in poverty conditions just up the hill from our home. She sleeps on a twin mattress on the floor with 6 other people. She has no pillow, is cold at night, and rats constantly wake her while she sleeps. Yesterday she asked me about Canada for a school assignment. I told her the basic things like: Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world; it is divided into 10 provinces & 3 territories; it spans from the Pacific to the Atlantic ... "Is this what you wanted to know?" I asked her. "No, Ibu, does Canada have malls?" She wanted me to go deeper. And so I spoke of Canada's roads, homes, economy, medical assistance, schooling ... and she shook her head in amazement. "It's not fair, is it?" I said at the end. "We don't get to choose where we are born ..."I wonder what she thought about as she fell asleep last night. Will she dream of a better life? Will she study even harder to become the nurse that she dreams of being? Will she one day get the chance to go to university in a different country?For now I'll start by buying her a mattress ...