Reality

I have been here for almost 3 weeks and still I find myself shocked to see the thousands of men, women and children in the streets selling whatever they can to make money to survive. Stunned seeing the thousands of malnourished children that are sick from the environment that they are forced to live in, witnessing people living in conditions that you would never think is possible. There are houses that are surrounded by filth, water that is contaminated with feces, urine, oil and trash.
We met with a man who works for Public Works and he told me that the sewage system was built for 300-500 thousand people. There is a slight problem there are well over a million people living in Monrovia....no wonder the pipe lines get backed up. The overflow is all over the city, next to people's homes, on the streets where people are selling and where people are walking.
Here I am an American citizen who has been submerged into an unfamiliar culture. I have had to adapt to the food, the lack of clean water, the customs, suffering children, disease and heartbreaking requests that seem so simple but yet they are complicated. The need all around the world is so great....maybe you're like me and question where to start. We have to do something...we can't sit by and allow these children to die from preventable diseases! It is 2008 and people should not be living in these conditions. No man, woman or child should go to bed hungry....yet millions of people all around the world do everyday. I write all of this because we see it on the news, we read about it in books, but this is reality! We need to WAKE UP and start helping these people in anyway possible.