It's a Charmed Life

This weekend the entire island is without the luxury of running water. This means that to flush our toilet we must pour bottled water in to the tank, to brush our teeth we must use more bottled water, and showering is basically not an option. This weekend will be the longest I have ever gone without a shower in my entire life. However, the people in this third world country experience challenges like this on a regular basis. In fact we experienced a 5 hour power outage earlier in our trip as well. It has been an eye opening experience for me to see the way that the people of the island cope with these constant challenges that we as Americans very rarely face. I will have to admit that I am missing the luxuries of America quite a bit but I also know that this experience is one that will change the way that I experience those luxuries for the rest of my life. It is incredible to me the positive attitude that the people have here in the face of so many obstacles. For example my students at San Pedro high must pay to go to school; their education is not free, but the facilities that they are accustomed to pale in comparison to those we have in the States. My students do not have access to computers the way that we do. They are forced to share books. There is no air conditioning, no dry erase boards, no cafeteria, and no art supplies. Student’s creativity is stifled because they only have extra curricular classes one day a week and the PE program was just started this year. Students in America have no idea how good they have it because they are given so many opportunities for free. I am learning through this trip that generally Americans are people who have very little global awareness and take the privileges that we have for granted.