cardboard

Sitting comfortably in my bus seat last week, I observed two children playing on a street corner. They were playing "horsie" and running all over the grassy medium of Avenida Italia. I smiled, because they were laughing really hard - and as the bus inched up the tiny hill, towards the street lights, I saw a cardboard box filled with blankets and a few cookie wrappers and it hit me: these kids weren't just playing around on the grass, they were living there.
I've seen poverty. Living in one of the most dangerous barrios of Managua, Nicaragua for a month showed me a kind of poverty I hope no one ever experiences; I just haven't seen it in Uruguay. I work with kids in disadvantaged neighborhoods and I've seen the hardships they're working through, I just never realized how many street kids live in Montevideo. Last week on the news the social workers were pleading with the people to stop giving money to kids begging on the streets and to start telling them to go to shelters. Most children and youth who live on the streets make their money by begging in the old city and by entertaining people with tricks while they wait at stop lights.
For the last week, I've been battling with this realization. I've been watching the people as the bus flies down the street, I've been taking note of how many kids I see wandering without shoes and living in cardboard boxes... I've been wondering why I haven't seen it this clearly for the past 10 months.