Wow, it's been 3 days and I'm already in love with the people here. This is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, and yet the people still smile constantly. They are fans of my beard and Colbys muscles (aren't we all). The food is great, the living expenses are cheap, and the landscape is amazing. I look out our window to clouds lying on the mountains like a blanket on a resting body. The poverty, however, is breaking my heart. Seeing a boy, no older than 12, sitting on tattered rags with no hands or feet begging would bring anyone to tears. As I passed him the equivilent of 2 dollars US his lifeless eyes lit up for an instant before falling back onto the nubs he used to grasp it with. This was 10 minutes before we passed the nearly naked homeless man who was either sleeping, unconcious, or dead on the sidewalk with a black eye and scars on his face. How can society let this happen, what kind of people are we, why dont we care. These were questions I kept asking myself as the day wore on. While the squalor was all around me there were still little sparks of light, children smiling at the bearded white man as he passed them on the street, pitching in for a 7 dollar barrell of milk for a starving baby and his mother, being welcomed with "Namaste" everytime I entered a shop, and the overall gracious and purely happy attitudes of people we talked to. This is going to be a time in my life I will never forget and that will, without a doubt, help shape me towards a lifestyle of being a better world citizen and a better person. Thanks again to all who support me,
Alex
