Friday, January 16, 2009

Retirement home



Like every day, I walked through the streets of my neighbourhood and like everyday i found something. This time it was a retirement home.
One heavy question went through my head:

What am I doing when I get old ?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

New world.



-Where are you going ?-
-I am going to Venezuela.-
-Oh, that is going to be such a nice vacation, nice whether everyday.
Have fun.-

The drip of water you see is more expensive than the same drip of gasoline. Follow that idea and you will realize that it is way cheaper to feed your car with gas than to feed the child begging for your change out in the streets.

In the background you can see the -barrios-
the so called invaders who started building little sheds on the side of a mountain to have a place to stay.
Every other day you see smoke comming out of thier direction.
I wondered why, till I was told that the garbage collection does not go up there...

Thier neighbors further to the left of the mountain - a barrio which was built many years 
earlier - do not burn their trash but put it out so that over the years a -trash avalanche- is running down the side of the mountain now.

The amazing thing is that every night you hear salza music comming out of those mountains... Very sweet and joyfull salza music.
When I get down from the 18th floor where I am living and I see people comming out of thier barrios - which I can see every day out of the distance washing my dishes - there is one thing that makes you think: They smile.

I guess most people accept things they are born in to.
They get used to it.

Ofcourse we, as the wealthy and well educated people know all such things.
And still.
When I turned the knob of the faucet in the center of the picture, I was amazed that there was no water comming out of there.
There is a knob like at home - but in this world there is no such thing as hot water comming out of there.

Yes we do know all that, just like the people from the barrios know that there are rich people.
But do we truly know each other - do we know how it feels like to be in each other shoes ?

The first two weeks showed me that one can get a lot more out of this country than just a nice vacation. The knowledge  everybody seems to have becomes alive in this place and that might be where the beauty is to find.

And  yes, the whether is nice.