A few nights ago we were watching a comedian on television, and he started going on and on about the silly things people get mad about. For example he told a story about how he was on a plane and when the first boarded the plane the flight attendants had announced that they would have privilege to use wi-fi. Now at the time he was on the plane this was a brand new service, and he was all excited, and amazed at how well it worked, and then something happened and the wi-fi malfunctioned. So the flight attendant made an announcement that they had had a technical difficulty with the wi-fi, and it would no longer be accessible for the duration of the flight. Suddenly everyone on the flight was angry, and complaining, and the guy sitting next to him started commenting on how unbelievable it was that something like this could happen! So then the comedian goes on to tell the rest of the joke about how he thought the miracle was that they were able to fly magically through the air, and in what used to take years to get from New York to Los Angelos now only took a matter of hours!
So eventually the whole point he was trying to make was that us Americans have what he called "American" problems. That our privileged country could not see the difference between a real hardship, and the so called problems we have that inconvenience our very easy-to-live lives.
And I believe he is correct. Even as I write this I am incredibly annoyed by the large dog trying to lay in my lap. How could I possibly be annoyed by an animal that is just trying to get a little love and attention?
Now this is not the first time that I have had to check my self and realize that what I was getting so upset over, was merely a minor detail rather than a catastrophic event. It has been nearly 5 years since my Dad died, and believe me, I have had a lot of time to ask 'Why me?' and think about how horrible life can be. But from all of that I have tried my best to be more positive. I am definitely not saying that life is a Bowl Full of Cherries, and I am sure most of you who have met me, or spent any time around me in the past 5 years knows that I don't walk around with a big old smile on my face ALL the time, commenting on how wonderful it is to be here. Perhaps most of my reflection is inward, and I simply just try and remind myself that I have had worse days, and the people i have met in the last 3 years have pretty much lived what most of us would consider a life time of Hell.
I am pretty sure most of you know I am talking about my friends in Haiti, when I say the people I have met in the past 3 years. But if you could only hear some of the stories of the things some of the children I have met have had to deal with, you would know that there are bigger problems in life and those 'less fortunate' have done a much better job coping than any of us could ever even begin to try. And the losses that they have accumulated have not only happened since the Earthquake in 2010, but have been happening their entire lives.
When greeting someone in Haiti I think it is custom to ask that person some basic question, depending on the time of day. For example when you are greeting someone in the morning you generally begin with 'Good Morning', 'How are you?', and 'How did you sleep?'. Now I often get asked questions like 'Did you eat?' and 'How is your health?' But almost every day someone is sure to ask me 'How is your mother?' and 'How is your father?'. So one day I was walking along with one of the younger boys and he asked me this 'How is your mother?' and I said 'she is fine' and then he asked 'How is your father?' and I said 'I don't have a father, he is dead' (I know it sounds a little blunt, but I am saying this in creole, and I am not sure the nice ways to say things like that so I just said it) So this little boy absorbed what I said, and with hardly any remorse, he asked me the next question as if it were the most obvious of ways to die. 'Was he shot?' I was obviously taken aback by this question, and I simply said 'No, he was sick' and the boy said okay.
I have always been affected by the casualness of this conversation. But then I started to think about stories I have heard about what some of the kids have gone through. I certainly don't know this particular boys story, but it's suffice to say that being shot, especially in some neighborhoods of Port Au Prince is a more common occurrence. By saying all of this I don't want to scare you, especially if you have been to Haiti are considering taking a trip, but I just want to point out that death, and starvation, and slavery, and rapes, and all the scary things that we try so hard to protect ourselves from are a reality in a great deal of the world. Things happen every day that are unimaginable to us, and we are simply too ignorant to know what is really going on, or too scared to learn the truth. Regardless, us Americans, Canadians, most Europeans - us upper- middle class, and even a great deal of lower class in these countries are too preoccupied to really notice a genuine problem from a simple inconvenience.
I will always get angry. I will always find things that are unimportant, but equally annoying. But I just hope that I can do my best to realize when I am overreacting or just simply remember that things could be a lot worse.
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