Can't Afford

            I know I haven’t really written any HNGRish blogs that have been on “tough” topics like poverty, justice, etc. There have been reasons for that, of which I won’t go into the details now. I decided to break that slightly in this blog to discuss something that has been frustrating me.

            The major way that I have seen “poorness” has not really been through seeing people who have been traumatized or starving or anything like that – which contrasts with other HNGR interns who are engaging with them directly. My primary experience of this sort of thing has been people unable to purchase what are for me relatively cheap things. It’s not uncommon for a $2 purchase – say for transport, food at a restaurant, etc. – to be simply out of my friends’ price range, too expensive for them to afford except infrequently. I have seen similar things for even more elaborate expenses that may cost somewhere around $8-$10. Now my friends don’t present this as a crisis or horrendous but as simply normal life. Nor is this what I am told by people who I later find out are trying to hit me up for money.

I know the cost of living is cheaper here, but this still seems to me to be a little excessive. The people I am talking about are not desperately dying or clearly living “in poverty.” They look healthy, seem to have good lives, etc. These are the everyday people and my friends. What do you do with this? Usually when I see people who can’t afford what I consider cheap purchases, I don’t know what to do.