I believe this photo was taken by my niece Michelle

I’m not a pessimistic person, never was, but I’m a very sensitive and a practical person which tries to see things out of the box and mostly differ with others people’s opinions, sometimes see the beauty where apparently is none and other times I see crap where others see “beauty” maybe that is why I like photography, thru it I can express myself from differents point of view meaning that we don’t own the true, we humans in general just see the same situation from different angles and that makes us all partially right and partially wrong about the exact same situation.

Since I started this blog I try to be as objective as I can, but I’m human driven by emotions and own points of view based on my own experiences.

I go back to Paraguay once a year in I stay there around 3 months, I partially live there because my mom has a house and we stay there with here, I try to have my activities, I still work while there,  I keep going to Chinese class at a Chinese school, and to the gym when im not too lazy. I go out a lot with my friends, they are lovely and they care about me, which is nice, makes me happy, maybe that’s why it is so difficult for me to cut the bond, well, actually I don’t even want that =)

Being there makes me realize that is a real life, not a perfect bubble environment, but the current life there can be sad, there are poverty all around, on the streets teenager mom’s with little babies asking for money, or on the street lights everytime you stopped the car you get surrounded by windshield cleaners and so on…

Talking about poverty I remember that one of my best friends called me one day saying that she saw an advertisement in the news paper that they need some specific medicine and other items for the pediatrics department at the Hospital de clinicas, well, so we went to buy the medicines and other things that I don’t remember and we drove there…

Before I went I always heard horrible things about that place but I had to see it in person to be totally horrified and I actually was…

As we entered to that place, I noticed that it was dirty, the wall falling apart (the construction was very old), the paint was feeling of and you could see mold on the walls, we keek walking thru narrow alleys where they smell was disgusting and you could see forgotten people all over the place, it was a nightmare and I was speechless.

After a while we arrived to the pediatrician department and in a big room saw about 15 to 20 little cribs and bed with these beautiful kids, I was so sad, and im still sad while im writing now, most of the kids were accompanied by their moms, all turned around and saw us walking inside to talk to the doctor, there was just 1 doctor on guard at that time, a yound lady, probably around 25 years, full of hope still.

She was very very nice to us, we explained to here why we were there and then she called us ANGELS, I felt so bad, I didn’t do anything and she called us that way, I felt felt bad against me, against the government that allows that a public and some of the main care hospitals are in a total abandonment.

We talked for a while with the doctor about the general situation and I could not believe that was happening under our noses, people were literally dying for the lack of some basic medicine or things like that.

Mom’s were looking so sad near their little ones, that broke my heart, they were looking at us with hope, it was a breaking heart experience.

My friends and I were totally totally speechless as we walked out, then out of the blue one mother was crying and came after us shouting desperately that she needed help for her child, and I could relate to that, she approached the car crying, I saw her desperation, obviously I gave her all what I had, she thanked and left, I thanked her more for making me see that we are in this life to serve and not to be serve.

That experience was a lesson, I’m still learning that helping others in any way is all about, with a word, with a smile, with your time, with some medicines you can make a persons life easier or sometimes even save.

What I have learned

1. We are in this life to serve.

2. The world is bigger than my problems

3- I can make a difference (probably not change the world)

4- Be happier with less and do more for others

5- Not jugde by the facts but by the results.

6- Love, live, smile more and wish well

7- People need love and attention.

8- Selfishness is so overrated.

9- Listen to intuition and to the heart.

10- Never lose the sensibility.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.