Living between the extremes!

Now before I go too far, I will make this painful admission now.  We are among the richest in the area in which we live.  Though we have not been to all the homes, I feel pretty safe in saying that.  This is not to brag at all, because I would venture to say that all Americans who have a job and live in a house, rental or owned, are as wealthy if not wealthier than those we live around.  Anyone who has been to a third world country knows this.  I felt like I needed to say that before going into what I really needed to say. 

We live in a town that is very much a mix of statuses.  Where we lived before, in the capital, it was a mix, but there were streets between those who had much and those with not so much.  Here is very different, because you have a hut essentially right next to a very nice house. 

On one side of us is a home built much like ours, with a cement wall around it, since it has the same landlord.  The husband is a doctor who travels a lot and has his own car.  His wife and children are there all the time and have a househelper.  The children go to the private Catholic school, not because they are Catholic but it is seen as a better education, which costs money.  They have a television and refrigerator, thus they have electricity, and they have running water.  They have nice furniture and are very comfortable.

Yesterday I was invited into another compound by a lady who lives there.  All I knew of it was the wood thatch fence and one of the young men that lived there.  As we walked into the compound, she went straight to the cement building in the center.  As I approached the entry way, I saw that there were four doors, each with it's own lock.  She told me she rents her room.  It was dark, because she has no electricity and the sun was going down.  I did not notice the well as we went into the compound, but I know there must have been because there was no running water.  There were no windows to speak of.  She invited me to sit with her on her mattress (not bed), one of two in the room, her only furniture.  She had a sheet hanging up separating her "room" from the "children's room".  She is a widow with several children.  She said she had no food for her family and asked me for work.  I found myself very uncomfortable and almost speechless as I sat in the most humble of surroundings.  She said her knees hurt, likely arthritis.  I prayed for her body to be well and that she would have peace, especially as a widow.  I tried to go a short time later to take her some food but she was not there.  Despite her situation, she was not embarrassed to invite me in to her home, but she did so warmly.

Even as I write this, I contemplate the humble entrance of our Lord into this world.  There was no mattress and no curtains.  Nothing but the hay for the animals.   "Away in a manger...."