Privleged

            Privileged? Blessed? How about obscene? The lives we live in our little 1^st world American bubble are so far removed and spoiled from the rest of this world that we all ought to take another look at how we live. I have gone through my life wishing I was rich, wishing I had that nice car, or that big house, or that little band of gold known as “the Ring”—but recently I have realized how perverse those ambitions are. In this country you can’t drink the water; half the time the water doesn’t even run. People in the streets all drive cheap little mopeds or broken old bicycles. The children play soccer in cement courtyards, and the roads are so dirty and dusty that everyone must wear masks to protect their lungs. Most of the markets here are infested with flies and the stench of butchered ducks, fish, and dog…yes dog, and it’s delicious. The houses here are cheap and dirty with hardly anything in most of them, but the strangest thing is that they are full of the happiest people I have ever seen. That’s right, in this poor little developing country the people smile and laugh more than any nation I have ever seen. Of all the things they don’t have, they do have a happy life. As I walk down the streets I see smiles at every corner and a world full of people that seem to get the big picture. Here it is not about the money or the prestige—and that’s more than I can say about where I’m from. The United States of America is the greatest and most powerful nation in history, but our people don’t seem to be happy with the simple things in life.

            I am truly grateful for the things I have seen in the last two weeks. In the morning I visit the Friendship Village, around lunch I work on NGO consulting work, and in the afternoon I teach English to a living room full of nine Vietnamese children. My view of the world and my feelings about my complex and privileged life has forever changed. I wish now, more than ever, for a simpler life. I may be wrong, but it seems that these people here have a pretty tough life: they labor in rice paddies from dawn till dusk; they live in shanties compared to our big American homes, but life is simple and they are happy. We should all take a lesson from these people; we should desire a little less and smile a little more. We should realize that our big schools and beautiful houses are not a given; they are a blessing. I hope that everyone back home can read this and understand that they are living in paradise, because the average person over here makes the average US citizen look like a billionaire. We should strive for happiness not money. Over here the wealth is happiness, and that means the Vietnamese must be the wealthiest people on earth. 

- Devon Smith