An Education in Life

I don't think K ever saw a beggar on the street in Vancouver - hmm....maybe in downtown on one of our outings, but I'm pretty sure not where we were playing on the playground. Here on the streets of Dushanbe, poverty is much more visible and real in our everyday lives.  We see it in the mother with her baby sucking on her breasts sitting on the steps of the underground we pass during a walk with a friend, in the children (maybe 6-7 years old) who run up to us selling chocolate bars in the middle of the central park, in the mother who can't afford a surgery for her daughter to help her walk, and in the old lady sitting outside the "pink store" (as K calls it) - the high-end (for the locals here) grocery store we frequent - with her hands out and pain in her eyes.

The other day while coming out of the store while K was in school, I saw this lady and while giving her some money, she silently asked me where my son was by putting one hand up to indicate a small child.  I told her he was in school, accepted her prayers for the money I gave her and wished her goodbye.  While walking home I realized that K is getting a real life education by interacting with this lady and the many other beggars we encounter, greet and offer money or food to. Following this, we usually have a conversation about why there people are asking for money - at his level of course. I tell him that some people don't have money and we should help them because we are so lucky.

The other day while talking about the lady outside the pink store (we talk about her even when we don't see her) he said "the next time we go to the pink store, we should give the lady some money." I'm beaming as I write this and realize that K is learning compassion.  I hope this will one day inspire him to do something about the problem the Dalai Lama once said was the biggest challenge of our time - that "we are raising a generation of passive bystanders."