Sunday, February 24, 2013

Kenya Rich

"Are we broke?" Isabelle asks us as we are sitting in the kitchen sharing the stories of our day.

We tend to be honest with our children and so we admit we don't have any extra money right now, we can't do whatever we want or sometimes even what we need to do.  But there is nothing for her to worry about.

"I wish we were rich." she responds.

"We are rich." was our immediate united response.
 
When you are a working class family living in an upper class community this is a truth you are always trying to teach your children and remind yourself.  It is all about perspective.  The people of our community have much more than us but in the big picture we have much more than some others.  John reminds her of the kids she played with in Kenya.  He reminds her that those kids sometimes only have 1 meal a day, live in little houses with dirt floors, can't go to school, have to work  hard to survive and only have a hole in the ground for a toilet.  This is a truth we remind ourselves of every day as we struggle to survive while John is in school.  We may not have much but we are never hungry, we live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood with good schools and an excellent city works department that brings us clean, safe water and a sewer system to flush our toilets into.

Isabelle's listens patiently and then responds just as quickly, "Yes, we are Kenya rich but, I wish we were rich, rich."

We pause and look at her.  "Yep, that would be fun."

Some days it isn't about the lesson, it is about the dream.  And without a dream, where are we be going?





No comments:

Post a Comment