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You Better Belize It
Contributed by: Kayla Ferguson on 7/5/2007

America. Fast food, nice cars, and more money then a lot of people know what to do with. And, here in America most of us are too busy with our soccer car pools, 9-5 work days and social calendars to realize that the rest of the world doesn't live with the same luxuries that we do.
Just last week, me along with forty four other members of St. Andrew United Methodist Church traveled to a poverty-stricken area of Belize to continue on some mission work that we started last year. Last summer we went there, many of us for the first time, and in a week and a half, constructed an entire preschool building for the children who otherwise would have no place to go to school. That building is now the model for other preschools throughout the country. This year we contined our work and added the finishing touches including a ceiling and better electricity, new furniture for all upper grade-level classrooms, a freshly painted builiding, new locks on all the doors,improved plumbing in the community bathroom and an irrigation system to help with the flooding problem. It was truly a humbling experience to see how little these people had yet how happy they were to have us their and willingness to help in anyway they could.
It'simpossible to put into words the conditions and lifestyle of these people. You truly have to be there in order to fully understand the mediocre plumbing, the shacks with half a roof and rotting stairs that these people call their home, the hungry kids who come begging for food in the same outfit they have worn for the past two days,and most importantly the simplistic lifestyle Americans could never understand. To most of the kids, we were seen as novely items-for some of them it was hard to comprehend America and all that we have. As a matter of fact, it was hard for some of the children tograsp the ideathat they actually got to choose between the 150 pairs of shoes we brought to them.
I strongly believe that the world would be a better place if we could all take a break from our materialistic and chaotic lives and visit a place like Forrest Home Belize. It is truly amazing that these people have literally nothing in comparison to all of our unnecessary possessions yet somehow appear to be so much happier and grateful for all the simple things in life. At times, they seemed to be so content that it was as if they weren't living in poverty at all So, the next time one of us Americans is trying to choose between a Ferrari or a BMW, think about the rest of the world that is trying to decided weather to put food on the table or send their kid to school so they can have a better life.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Kayla Ferguson

Highlands Ranch , CO

Kayla Ferguson has posted 1 story and 0 comments since joining on 6/18/2007. Kayla Ferguson 's average story rating is 0.
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