Thankful Series- Basic Needs

I have been reflecting lately on thankfulness. This has been a hard season for me, and I have been trying to be intentional about what I am thankful for. I am going to do a blog series on thankfulness to remind myself of what I am thankful for, but also to potentially help people realize what they may be thankful for. 

The first of the series is thankfulness is for basic needs. Living in Haiti has taught me a lot about how what we consider basic things are in reality not very basic. Running water (or water at all), clean drinking water, electricity, clean food (or food at all) are all things that Americans have much greater access to than the rest of the world. I think most Americans don't even realize how easily we have these things. We don't see that many places around the world do not have the availability to get these things, or if they do they are a bit of a luxury. 

Having access to things like a toilet, water to shower with, soap and clean clothes are not something that people all over the world are able to have. We shower, use the restroom and clean our house, selves and clothes without issue. People here generally hand wash their clothes either out in the river or are able to get water to wash with. It is a blessing to have someone hand wash my clothes, and I am very grateful for her. I am able to pay her for a service, that she does very well. 

I am thankful to have people who help me and have taught me to wash and prepare meat here. We take for grated in America that our meat comes pre cleaned, pre prepared. We don't have to grind our own ground beef. Here we wash our meat with acidic fruit, salt, vinegar and a little bleach (a very little- don't worry!). I don't think that Americans realize how thankful they should be that they don't need to disinfect and prepare their meat. It is time consuming and if done wrong, it would make you sick. 

People in America don't realize how easy it is to get food that is safe, clean and reliable. I think thankfulness is a hard concept when you don't even realize how easy you have things. Food and cleanliness are things that come very common to Americans but require a lot of effort from people in other countries. 

I am thankful for everyone who has helped me learn how to do these things here in Haiti. As well as people who have been graceful enough to walk to me through how things are different here. 

I hope that hearing some of these differences helps you to be thankful for what you have. There is so much to be thankful for. Please check back into the blog again later this week to see what else the Lord has given me to share regarding thankfulness.