And in the end . . .

My wife picked me up at the Portland Airport after approximately 24 hours of flying in the air and sleeping on the floor in strange airports. As we drove home, happy to finally be together again, we decided we were both hungry and in the mood for something . . . healthy. Not a burger, or ten dollars worth of french fries. Something clean tasting and delicious. I immediately thought of the many juice stands in Peru, where a dollar or less can get you a tall glass full of fresh squeezed orange juice, or papaya with pineapple if you're in the mood. Unfortunately the signs on the freeway continued to point us towards Wendy's, Carl's Jr., and McDonalds, not a juice stand in sight.

I guess you really don't appreciate what you have until it's gone.

Of course, a fresh squeezed glass of juice for only 30 cents also represents a great injustice, and in many ways the imbalance that exists in our world. A woman once sold me a glass of cebada for 15 cents. It was so delicious that I paid her quadruple, a whopping 60 cents. Her eyes lit up and she immediately rejected my offer, insisting that she couldn't possibly accept so much money. I explained that it was a tip, and with gratitude in her heart she finally accepted. Who would have guessed that 45 cents could literally make someone's day, and maybe even their week.

The more I learned and observed in Peru the more I realized that we shouldn't feel sorry for people just because they're poor. I watched kids play in the dirt with homemade toys. They smiled and laughed and genuinely enjoyed themselves, even without plastic army men or toys that light up and talk.

We don't necessarily need to get upset about the fact that some people can't afford the new Nike running shoes, or a trip to the Bahamas. The thing that we should really be upset about, and be working constantly to overcome, is that fact that some people can't afford even the most basic education and health care. I worked with kids who had big dreams for their future, but at just 15 years old (or younger) they were forced to leave school to find a job.