Dichotomy

I've spent a lot of time in my blog poking fun at the ridiculousness
that is Central and South America. To someone raised in middle class
America, the rest of the world is a crazy place... but maybe I'm the
odd one.

Less than 2% of the people in the world own a car and yet I usually
own 2 or 3 by myself. Nearly a billion people will go to bed hungry
tonight and about the same number don't have access to clean water,
yet we in America have plenty of both. I don't think that we should
feel guilty about this, but this trip has been a constant reminder
that OUR world is not THE world.

So what about all the whining about bus drivers and onions in my
pizza? Let's just say that my worst day in South America is better
than my best day plumbing a house in America. This is an amazing
place.

Make no mistake, I believe that I live in the greatest country on the
face of the earth. Through none of my own doing and simply luck of
the draw I was born an American. As I talk to people down here, I
don't think the average person has any concept of how much they've
been given from our country. When I was sick I was able to go to the
doctor and practically be given medicines that were developed in the
US and that I still would have to pay a fortune for in the US.

People everywhere have been extremely nice to us personally, it's just
really hard for me to hear people say that America is selfish when I
know that money gets taken out of my paychecks and sent to rebuild
Pisco. Maybe that's how God feels when I complain about onions in my
pizza :)

Update: We are in way southern Peru again. We struck out on
opportunities in Chile and rather than have to go farther south only
to come north again for our flight home, we headed to Arequipa.
Tomorrow we are starting the monsterous task of wiring a big Nazarene
church. They've had their building completed for a while, but didn't
have anyone capable of wiring it. I'm hoping me and my 3 newly
christened electrician friends can do the bulk of it in 3 days, but we
could use your prayers. It's big and it's complicated.