Give a little bit
How does one live on less than a dollar a day? I have no idea. But we've encountered a woman who claims to do just that. The weekend before last we were walking through a neighborhood as we were returning from our Saturday hike. There was about a dozen of us in the group--teachers, students and hangers on like me. Being in the back of the group, I noticed that a couple of the girls in the front had stopped before a little house. It turns out that an 82-year-old woman lived in that one room house and had asked them to help her thread a couple of needles. She was all but blind, you see. (cataracts, I think.) Michael and Joan started asking her questions (translated by the students, of course). It was a bit confusing to follow, as you had people speaking simultaneously in Chinese and English. From what I understood, the lady said that she was a widow, having outlived her husband and two sons. She lived alone and claimed to only get 250 yuan a year from the government. When asked if any of her neighbors helped her out, she replied that they didn't. One of the students gave her a handful of bills and Michael wondered if one of the other expatriates in town, who does development work, might be able to help her. I didn't add anything to the conversation, feeling a bit out of my depth. That the lady was impoverished was obvious, but I found it odd that her neighbors didn't help her out. Whether that was my old B.S. radar kicking in or just a rationalization to soothe my conscience, I don't know.Anyway, this past weekend we walked through the neighborhood again and we checked in on this lady again. Who's idea this was--student or expat teacher--I don't know. She seemed to be in need of some kindling wood and matches. (She already had a stash of regular firewood.) A couple of the students went in and chopped up some kindling for her and started a fire going. Someone suggested that we gather some kindling for her on our hike. A good concept, as a dozen people can schlep a lot of wood. Unfortunately, our hike turned out not to go anywhere near a proper woods. We mostly hiked by fields and into one gorge which was quite damp. Since we were not the types to disassemble someone's barn, we didn't get any wood. At one point we ran into a couple of people carrying a load of wood, but they said that it needed to dry out to be of any use. When we got back to the village, we stopped at a couple of places looking for firewood. Nobody, it seems, had any for sale. (Though we were able to score some matches.) One of the people we talked to also said that the elderly lady was alright--folks were looking after her. When we got back to the lady's house, we gave her the matches and Michael offered to chop up some wood to make kindling for her. She replied that she was quite capable of doing that herself. So we left, scratching our heads.
Okay, maybe it was only me that left in a state of confusion. My reaction to poverty tends to be a bit chaotic anyway. I want to help, but I've heard tales of charity building an unhealthy dependency. (And, of course, there's the selfish part of me that just wants to keep the money and spend it on CDs.) When I'm asked to give, I often just have to guess if opening my wallet will do good or ill. Here in China it's all that much worse. I have no clue how the society works. In one sense, I suppose that's a good excuse for sitting on my hands. Rather than playing individual philanthropist I can just give to agencies that know what they're doing. In another sense, I suppose that's just one more thing I need to get a handle on while I'm living here.
posted by John @ 4:21 AM
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