Monday's Story from Ecuador

I have been so humbled by the things I have seen here in Puyo. Over and over again I realize how ungrateful I am and how bless I am to be an American. The poor that I have seen in the US cannot compare to that which I have seen here. On Monday, we visited a mother and her three young children. The house was no more than the size of a one car garage. There were three boards of wood on the bottom half of the door to act as a child-safety gate. The house only had two rooms separated by a shabby wooden-panel wall and a tattered sheet. The corner where the sink and cabinet were held only a dozen eggs and three coffee cups. The dishes stored under the sink looked unwashed and used beyond their years. There was an unfinished table and three old plastic lawn-chairs which Danielle, Bre and I sat on. The mother told with us that she and the children share a mattress on the floor in the other room. The two oldest children were no more than four and five and the youngest was two. The mother looked tiered and the sadness that she expressed to us showed on her face. There was no glass in the large window behind her; only a sheet was used to keep the elements out. With tears in her eyes, the young mother was not bitter about her situation but adamant in sharing with us that she still had hope in God. I was humbled by her response to the difficulties in her life; I know that I would not be able to react in the same way. My heart went out to her and the many others single mothers that have been abandoned or left widowed by their husbands.