The Difference
Working with children, most of whom come from what we would consider to be abject poverty, provides me with a belated, but startling, realization.

These children are much like the mostly privileged children I have been working and playing with all my life, with a single substantive difference: they don't have money.

Their enjoyment of activities, appreciation of human values and how to treat one another, and their brightness, are all parallel with those who have had far better opportunities.

Interesting that it took 6 years and many trips of 8,000 miles for me to have this clear realization. I had intellectualized it many times before, but after seeing thousands of these South African children at camp over the past years, I finally got it clearly and deeply. They could be world leaders, movers and shakers if they had the opportunity that so many of have in the US and Canada. The difference is that when they get it, they appreciate and use it.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 07:29