poverty

For 78F yesterday, read 50 today. And rain. But there are better websites to catch up on Seattle's weather.
Sundays are busy for me, and after the pounding heat of yesterday and not enough fluids to satisfy my body, I wasn't feeling great. Had an interesting discussion with my room mate though.

It was about poverty.

I said you'd have to wait to next year to hear about Mexico, well it came up again today. Every year, a group of students travel down to Mexico for a week to build houses for people who 'need' them most. The reason for the inverted commas is coming up. This, you'll agree, is a wonderful gesture and I was fortunate enough to get to go this year. As i'm sure you can imagine, the term 'poverty' came up quite a lot over the course of the week, which got me thinking; What makes these people in 'poverty'?

Here's what I thought; The living conditions of some of these people are really quite bad, several people living in one cramped room, poor plumbing, animals running around etc etc. But were people not living quite happily like that thousands of years ago? Is poverty only a relative term when used in relation to the 42'' TV's, fine education and SUVs that we enjoy? would dropping the poorest people of the world today into another time and culture not instantly make them middle class? I don't know. If you could design the world from scratch, on the condition that everyone had to have the exact same stuff, what would be the things you'd give to everyone? But then maybe the giving is more about the giver then the receiver. Maybe improving the lives of the poorer is actually secondary to the richer learning to share. Like I say, I don't know.

I need to drink more water. We discussed that too. I heard somewhere that we should drink 2 litres of water a day, so i'm going to start that tomorrow after the hydrating debacle of yesterday.

Had a terrible incident crossing the road today too. Its so awkward when you see someone you know at the other side of the road, waiting to cross in the opposite direction as you. After the initial wave or head jerk acknowledgement, there isn't much left to do other then look away or attempt to shout a joke. Nightmare.

Tomorrow is Monday, and we know wha that means......