(Excerpt from “I’m from Earth?”)
“A lot of us Third Culture Kids have witnessed poverty at a level most of our peers have not. I remember there was a garbage dump that was no longer in use that had become a home to a small village of people who had moved into the city with the hope of work and found none. Because of the shame that would accompany them should they return home to their villages (because in that country honor and shame are way more important and impactful than truth or humility), they decided to stay and live in the slums. They scrounged through garbage looking for recyclable bottles and things they could sell in big bundles for pennies, frequently going hungry with no access to any medical care whatsoever. They didn’t even have money to afford the school uniforms kids were required to have and wear to go to public school. And if they did somehow manage to send their kids to school, if the child didn’t test high enough in high school, they were limited to access to lower colleges that prepare you for the lowest jobs. Sometimes the most desperate poor would even maim children and send them to street lights to beg because kids get the most charity, especially kids and babies that are injured.
This is a level of poverty we rarely see in countries like the United States.”
Photos from 2008 courtesy of my friend Cassie watching me NOT fall into the water...
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