Black Friday and Vegetables

I love so many things about this country, but at the same time I am constantly aware of the amount of problems the people of this country suffer on a day to day basis.

-50% of Guatemala is iliterate.

That sort of a figure is so hard for us to comprehend. At first it seems so archaic, but at the same time, in a 3rd world country literacy isn't always necessary. Generation after generation of Guatemaltecos grow up in families in extremely rural areas. Education isn't necessary. In general people in the mountains are born, married, and die all within the same town. However, as time passes jobs are harder and harder to find, the land is farmed down to useless dirt, and people are forced to look elsewhere for their way of life. One of the so-called reforms the Guatemalan government has made lately is to require a literacy test for many jobs but they haven't set up any kind of programs to aid the iliterate. Thus, thousands of people are without jobs and are unable to get them because they aren't literate, but they are unable to attend school because they don't have a job to get money to pay for books.

People here also remain largely uneducated in health matters as well. Sex, health, and education for mother's is nonexistant. For the most part these things are taboo subjects. However by the time a rural girl here reaches the age of 18 it is likly that she has been pregnant 3-4 times and probably has at least 2 children. Here, in a country where malnutrition and starvation runs rampant, breastfeeding is seen as more of a snack. A baby's first food is often tortilla soaked in instant coffee. Even if people know about good nutrition, vegetables are hard to grow and expensive to buy.

Vegetables are another thing. When a farmer gathers his crops he divides it into 3 parts. The first is the best of the best; these are shipped north to the United States. The second part goes to the markets. The last, the so-called "bad" vegetables stay within the family or are given to the poor through charitable organizations. The trickle down is slim for the majority of Guatemalans.

I was so hurt when I saw on CNN that a woman had been trampled on Black Friday at a Wal-Mart. Was that really worth it for cheap Hannah Montana t-shirts? In Guatemala people work themselves to death in order to keep their families alive. What does it say about our society that someone died shopping?

I don't want to start ripping down America as a whole. We are an incredibly blessed nation and there is nothing wrong with that. Personally I have learned so much here. God gives us blessings and he wants us to use and enjoy them, but at the same time it is so worth it to stop and realize the enormity of our blessings.