misguided?

here's the thing... i'm not one for making excuses for people. but i think there are explanations for things that happen, the way some people live and a lot of times, a need for a solution. not just complaining. or criticizing.

recently we've been bombarded by some more "comfortable" friends with questions about why we would work with poor people and not create some high class educational establishment... because you know, poor people don't appreciate anything, they just want to take advantage of other people's goodness.

in fact, the owner of the school i rent space from gave me a huge lecture about how dominicans just want to be handed everything. how they don't want to work. bla bla bla.

poor people have too many babies. poor people don't like to work. poor people expect to be given to without given. poor people don't educate their children. poor people are useless.

it's sad to me that we actually have to defend this.

it sucks to be poor. it sucks to have nothing. and it, i imagine, is quite easy to make a lot of excuses about how you deserve something because you're poor. but, not all poor people are lazy. in fact, in my limited life experience, i find that there is a small population of lazy poor people. a lot of undereducated poor people, down on their luck. but lazy? i don't think so.


it's frustrating that money and greed fuel life. that if we continue to work with poor people we're never going to be rich. which in turn probably means we're never going to be happy. because you know, money = happiness.

we don't really even try to defend our work. we don't argue either, because frankly there are some things that don't deserve a response. we just remember that although we might never be swimming in cash, we're making a difference and that's what is really important.