Feeling inspired by tacogirl’s post on Monday about the children in Belize who are living in a “different, more simpler way,” I would like to elaborate on her insight and talk about how I have been continually impressed with how this simple life often leads to a heightened ability for resourcefulness. With the little that people do have, they are always able to make the most of it.
I have had similar experiences taking photos of children. They are amused and pleased by almost anything and it is a heartwarming feeling to know that I can make a child’s day simply by spending a few extra minutes playing with my digital camera. On a sadder note, however, this same phenomenon often plays out with children who have virtually nothing to play with at all. Marbles are a luxury in some places and objects found on the ground or even in the trashcan will easily substitute for a toy that can amuse them for hours.
A 6 -year-old collecting water out of the pila so he can flush the toilet
What is most impressive is that this resourcefulness definitely persists into adulthood. I have seen holey buckets patched up with tape, and plastic chairs split in half and then strung together with rope. People here wash their clothes by hand, they sell homemade juice out of plastic bags in the marketplace, they “mow” their lawns with machetes and they turn their own living rooms into shops and paint “pulperia” or “libreria” above their front doors. At the program I work for and even in my own casita, all of the water I use (to bathe, to wash clothes, to cook and to flush the toilet) is all rain water. All homes here are strategically built to collect it, with angled roofs and gutters that lead to one big basin.
Turning old soda bottles into planters
On the one hand, it is a sad realization to make, that people here just don’t have the same opportunities or resources. They are forced to improvise with so little, while so much of the rest of the world has so much. It just isn’t fair. On the other hand, this ingenuity is refreshing because most of the time I feel like I come from the land of too much. We have anything we want at our fingertips, literally with the mere click of a mouse. To see that not everyone lives such a wasteful life is inspiring. When I am living in a place where people need to rely on their creativity to simply survive, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around how people in other parts (including myself, at times) can live so extravagantly, always buying the newest and the latest or the biggest and the brightest.
Come to think of it, we could probably all take a few lessons on conservation from the folks down here.
[For anyone interested in watching a clever 20 minute video about how our desire for more and more things affects the planet and the people around us, please check out The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard.]
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