Tears of a stranger

Tears. My tears come down my face when there are no words to express how I feel. I wish these were happy tears, but they are not. Today we had the opportunity to visit our students homes, it was heartbreaking. I never would have imagined that I would see what I did. All types of emotions came over. I started to question myself as a person. These students come to school everyday happy, and ready to learn. After seeing their homes, I don't know if I could be that happy everyday. The homes didn't have any stoves, refrigerators, water, showers or tubs. These are things that are just needed for everyday living, and they didn't have any of it. The toilets were on the outside of the home, they used the bucket system. They used water from a faucet, which they shared with the neighborhood. How do they eat? How do they bathe? How do they wake up with a smile on their face everyday? How are they motivated to want better? At such a young age, how do they handle that most of the people surrounding them are infected with HIV? Here I am crying over things that they aren't even complaining about. How can my tears, the tears of a stranger, help them? If they are not crying about their situation why should I? I should be more focused on ways to help them get out of the situation. There is a 30 million rand museum built right beside the slums. If there is enough money for the government to build museums I am certain that they could start helping people get out of poverty. One of the doctorate students here said "It seems like the less you have, the happier you are." I totally agree, we could have everything that we ever wanted, and still find one thing to complain about. We need to think before we act. There is someone who would be happy just to receive a glass of sanitized water, so just be grateful at all times, no matter what you are missing! We are going to figure out a way to help the families and students at our school...more info coming later.