Do Away with Ambivalence

"Uncle Ray," stood about 5'7, was sporting a thick flannel shirt, and proudly wore a bright red cap with the Canadian maple leaf sprawled across the crown when I first met him. My friend had put us in touch since I was traveling solo here in Nicaragua.

We got alone swimmingly from the beginning and within minutes we were on our way to a small beach town a few hours west of Granada. "How's your Nicaraguan history?" he asked. "Uh, well Cordoba came in 1524. And Nicaragua gained it's independence in 1821," I tell him. He smiles as if to say, It depends who you ask.

I tell him that his nephew Guillermo informed me Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the western hemisphere. "That's right," he says. Haiti is the first." I tell him I've been there too. "So you know real poverty," he insists. As much as I can I think to myself.

It's true, this is a beautiful country with remarkable people but there is an intensity to the poverty that is unsettling. I feel guilty for eating at restaurants where I can order a smoothie or some granola when the woman outside the Cathedral of Granada begs for money in the merciless sun. 

While riding on a rented scooter I take winding roads through the lush and striking countryside, while speeding past derelict buildings and children who look like they haven't had three square meals in all their lives. What can I do? I start to wonder.

What I think is important is first having a heightened sense of awareness of the issues beyond our own backyard. It is only through a sense of understanding that we can move forward. This trip has offered some profound insights that I will apply to my life when I return to the states. I will try to avoid taking things for granted particularly the simplest of things -- my ability to have clean water, shower, eat healthy, and find meaningful work.

I'm not suggesting everyone needs to travel to a place where there is exceptional destitution but that we inform ourselves of the challenges that not only we face but people in other parts of the world. 

Through a desire to know more our ambivalence slowly erodes and we can find ways, even small ones, to make things just a little better for people other than ourselves.