Not Quite Finished

Just sitting here today contemplating about why I’m so uncomfortable here in the States. It started out with my dentist appointment at 7 am this morning. I thought it was made to get my tooth repaired (a small part chipped off) but would up being just a cleaning and examining session. I was told I had to make another appointment to have to tooth repaired. Yet they had time to take 7 x-rays of my teeth (that I didn’t need but was told were necessary). It’s really strange the way insurance companies have changed the way medical offices now operate. Thankfully, overseas is not at all like that.

So, back I go in two hours to have what is probably a 20 minute session to fix my tooth (It was only 10 minutes, max). I was told I could leave it like it was for three more months until my next scheduled appointment but it is a bit rough around the edges and I don’t want my tongue constantly rubbing on it. All the way home, and until this moment, I can’t stop wondering why on earth did the dentist (who is a great guy) not just repair it when he looked at it after my teeth were cleaned? Overseas, there would have been no discussion. They would have just repaired it then and there.

Anyway – it got me to thinking about the poorer people around the world which we have lived in for most of our lives. Many don’t even have access to dentists let along the money to pay for expensive teeth repairs. (You don’t even want to know how much that ten-minute procedure cost! Two months wages for many of them) Most of them would not even think about getting their teeth cleaned twice a year. There are so many more necessities that would come before such a luxury.

Then my train of thought moved on to my bible study group that meets each week. We probably sit among people that have a combined wealth of many millions of dollars. I’m guessing that not one of them would hesitate having their teeth cleaned each year, or two times a year. They have all lived in the medical system that surrounds them each and every day. I just watched a news report about a small town in Florida that is now charging visitors five dollars an hour to park their vehicles in the downtown area. That will probably crush the businesses there. That is enough money to feed a family of eight for two days in many parts of the globe.

I’m sure that if we had not spent so much time living outside the borders of the States we would not have the worldview that we have. I’m positive that is one thing that makes living back here so very challenging. Spending 25 dollars for breakfast for my wife and I crushes something in my soul. Car purchases and repairs, entrance fees into camping parks, toll roads, going to a movie, eating out, medical expenses, taxes, property insurance, etc., all have astronomical amounts of money attached to them.

As I cogitate about the above, I honestly can’t fathom how someone, or a group of people, who travel to places like South Asia, Africa, Mongolia, or any of the many countries or regions of the world where people live strikingly different from Americans, can relate to what they are seeing. Do they even relate at all or do they simply enjoy the cheapness of that spot?

A question I often ask to groups where I am speaking is, “What does poor look like to you? Where is the poorest section of this city or town? Once they tell me I ask them, “How do you get there?” The answer is almost always, “you take this or that road”. I think ask them, “Are the roads paved?, and they say, “of course”. “When you get to that section of the city what do the houses look like?” Often, “Run down, but normal”. Do they have electricity? Do they have furniture in their homes? Do they have a television? Cell phones? Do they have a vehicle? A refrigerator? Beds with mattresses? And a slew of other questions. All are answered with a “yes”. Then I tell them stories about some of the places we have lived in. It alters their view.