----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 8:30
AM
Subject: Re: Re: [sharechat] Re: Livig
by one' wits reply again barrel scraper
A little closer to home . Our family lived in
Fiji for five years . After a year of wondering why our
monthly grocer`s bill was so high at the local chinese shop . (
considering there were four children and two adults in our
family) My wife under cross examination suggested I join
her on her next trip into the heartland . I knew she ran the Vatukoula
Relief Society distributing weekly food parcels to poor families
.
My eyes were
opened at the homes we visited and the sheer poverty everywhere.
American and other tourists just do not venture into the heart of Viti Levu
. All they see are swaying palm trees and the nearest cocktail bar . That
is the Fiji they know taking photos of what they are
shown not what they seek out.
I remember one Indian
corrugated iron leanto home we visited with the last of our food
parcels. The family had six children waiting to open the parcel . My wife
,who is more observant than myself, after a long discussion with the parents
as to their particular needs, asked the parents where the seventh
child was . After an embarassed silence Jill looked behind a screen and we
found an emaciated starving child . We discovered that in a world of
absolute pragmatics the parents,realising they could not feed and clothe all
seven children confronted the heartbreaking decision which child to
literally abandon and starve to death.
Never again did I question
our grocer`s bill nor my wife`s better judgment of priorities.
David
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