Fish and Poverty

Today, our upstairs neighbor Pat, called and asked if we could walk down the street to help a local woman, Clarestine, set up an aquarium for her daughter Nicole. At first I was a bit hesitant because setting up an aquarium is quite the project. Well, I am used to 30 gallon tanks I guess. We walked down this evening, and the aquarium is one of those little 2 gallon hexagon kits that we can buy at Wal-mart. Clarestine had bought it for Nicole at Christmas, and they just got the fish today. So, Brian showed them how the tubes and air filters work, and they put in the fish - pretty, colorful guppies.

Clarestine and Nicole live in what they try to pass off as a house here. This is a one-bedroom place that is no bigger than Nolan or Michaila's bedroom. They manage to squeeze in a miniature kitchen with a half-sized stove, a micron-sized bathroom, and a bedroom, which mother and daughter share. There are not enough cabinets to hold the food and not enough room to store their clothes. They have a sweet, old dog whose eyes look like Rugby's and a parakeet, who lives in a cage outside. I could cry thinking about this little "house".

Clarestine keeps a cute little garden too. I must stress little. . . imagine one of every plant crammed into the space a car occupies in a parking lot. Clarestine works so hard to make sure Nicole gets a proper education. Last year, she mentioned that Nicole likes to read the Sweet Valley books. So, we bought a bunch of used ones online and Brian brought them down because books are hard to come by here. When we left, Clarestine gave us an invitation to Nicole's primary school graduation. It is on July 3, and we plan on going. It makes me think a lot though about all the material things that people, me too, desire and don't really need.