A Visit to a Poor Neighborhood - Essay Example

A Visit To A Poor Neighborhood al Affiliation A Visit To A Poor Neighborhood In the world we live, everything is ified according to some extent. In fact, we are being categorized species by species. Even a single-celled organism has its own categorization. Humans particularly have evolved belonging to the same order of classification, that is, to fit in and live with other human being. And unknowingly, interact with other creations to serve our purpose – living the life that we have. With this, we develop sense of belongingness and believe that we are all equal in some other ways. Although with time, people tend to find ways on how to survive and adapt to the changing condition of the environment and each of us tries to live the life of his/her own. We are to decide and choose the kind of life to live. Some were contented of what they have but others were not. Our belief then is that we are equal in some other ways because belong to the same order of classification as human beings, but now it is all different. With our different views in life, we have been separated to a certain degree and level of belongingness. A picture of division between two different angles of life is now very eminent. In our world today, we now have a community of poor and rich. Oftentimes, we distinguish them according to what they have. Possession of material things is often the key determinant of the status, namely, whether you are poor or rich. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines poor as “meagrely supplied or endowed with resources or funds”, while The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language define rich as “possessing great wealth and producing abundantly with materials and other resources”. Even with the definition, these terms are distinctly two different aspects of life. It is not only through possession of material things that we can distinguish the poor from the rich one. More often than not, social standing tells it all. Poor people are always confined to the outer and lower limit of the society. They are always seen as people who do not know anything, have unfinished education and considered as having little knowledge and ability. They deserve the right to be condemned, pitied and worst. They are often victims of cruelty of the society. They possess no power and even the right. This scenario depicting poor people is not inherent in one part of the globe. In fact, its increasing rate is being experienced by certain countries. How we could uplift the condition of the poor is a tough question. This is a challenge to everyone: the rich and the poor, the ordinary individuals and those with position and possessing power. A lot of consideration must be weighed before deciding on the most appropriate strategy to be adopted. Most academic institutions responded to uplifting the condition of the poor by having outreach programs wherein they set time to visit poor communities. In here, visiting them could provide a feeling of being appreciated and a sense of being given priority amidst all things that are really important. This will inspire them that life is good because of the people that still care and show concern for them. Pasadena is a city in the US, State of Texas, within the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan area. It is the second largest city in Harris County, 17th largest in Texas and 162nd largest in the United States. The area was founded in 1893 by H. Burnett of Galveston. Burnett, the founder, named the area after Pasadena because of the perceived lush vegetation. Although Pasadena is the 17th largest city in Texas and 162nd largest in the United States, a great many poor people inhabit the area. This is the place where the visitation of the poor people living specifically in the Apartment “Vista Del Sol” was conducted. Upon visiting, the students have the opportunity to enter the premise of the residents. They can observe and interact with them, ask questions so that they can know them better. Interacting with poor people enables realizing feelings and experiences of the latter. With the help of interaction we will be able to know more about them, their true personalities, behaviour and values. Sometimes, it is amazing to know that what we knew about them is different from what they are in reality. Our understanding that they have limited knowledge because of lack of education is surprisingly not always true. We will come to understand that people’s ability is measured not only by the degree of education, but by how these people cope with circumstances and find ways to survive. By observing the people living in the apartment, it was found out that most of them are Latino or Hispanic, and some are black. This means that being poor is not a racial discrimination. It is how life seemed to be. Our life’s destination is not dictated by who we are and where we came from. It is a matter of choice, not by chance. Hence, we do not have the right to condemned life just because we are poor. There are life’s circumstances that only the poor are able to relate with. For instance, only poor people have the ability to cope with the worst condition such as pursuing life amidst meager income and insufficient basic needs. No rich people can adapt to this kind of situation because they are not used to living with the toughness of life. The apartment has two pools, but only one functions because the other one is completely covered. This scenario is typical to the community of the poor. Lack of access to a full use of resources for leisure and pleasure activities is not so much to be debated of. They are much concerned with where to live. Rich people, on the other hand, would have taken time and spent money to fix one of the pools. They can do this because they are not worrying of where to get their needs for they have all the means to acquire this. The place has a playground, but although newly constructed, there is not enough space for the kids in the apartment. It is noted that poor families tend to have many children which is not so common among the rich. It aroused the suspicion that because the poor are not busy working outside for their living and no other means of recreational activities and they have enough time for sex activities with their partners. Furtermore, parents are not totally bothered by having lots of kids as long as they feed and live with them. Moreover, this trait brings forth positive reaction and it should be given primary attention. Some cases of babies being abandoned are at alarming rate. Many of the teen-agers belonging to a large family develop a feeling of rejection that leading to escape, rebel and find ways to being accepted by the society. This is happening because parents cannot promise undivided attention and love to their kids. It is much better if the kids resort to some activities such as sports instead of wasting their time doing worthless things just like the kids in the apartment where they keep themselves playing soccer. This kind of sports is still typical to the community of poor people because they cannot afford to have technologies like computers that could replace old-fashioned ones. For rich people playing this game on the ground is obsolete because they can afford to have modern types of games just within their reach. With just a blink of an eye and a push of a button, they instantly have an access to different kinds of sports and games. Talking with one of the housewives and the kids living there, they complained about the pool, probably because not all of them are being accommodated. There is really a problem with communal pool. Public sharing of one resource means competition. Since no one owns the utility, somebody might act as the owner which is a problem especially if that person demonstrates superiority to the rest. Unregulated system within the community of the poor is also a problem. Sometimes even the authorities cannot act as a mediator. Poor people are branded with having a hot-tempered personality and it is being so because in one way or another they are affected by the hardest and toughest obstacles in life that they need to get rid of. One of the housewives also complained about the loud music played in other apartments and they find it hard to go to sleep because it disturbs them. Living in a remote place along with these people is really difficult. You cannot claim for privacy unless you are alone or you prefer to be isolated. The worst scenario could be if you also play music as loud as theirs. If this is the thing, neighbours might end up arguing to the extent of quarrelling with each other. That is why the community is always noisy and cumbersome. During the visit it was known that some crimes, such as vandalism and theft, do exist. This is not a new issue because even in an organized community, crimes do occur. Some of us, especially the poor, are being pushed by circumstances to commit crimes. But it is not good that we associate poor people with crimes especially with stealing. Although sometimes they are suspected and even caught doing the crime, still, not all of them do it. Those are only some of the observations and information acquired through interaction and some conversation with them. Visiting this community of poor people teaches us some morals in life. Poor people are human beings who need to be respected despite of how they live their lives. The mere fact that they allow students to enter their domain is an attitude worth to be praised. This means that they trust the visitors and will not be harmed by their presence. It is appropriate that the trust given by them should also be given back. There are poor that still adhere to the goodness of life, full of faith and live by their faith. For sure, nobody wants to be poor. Given a chance, these poor people could have opted to become rich to be free from any unjustified accusations. Charges of being always involved in crimes, being arrogant and having limited knowledge is restricted only to mingle with their fellow poor people. Opportunity such as visiting poor neighbours is somewhat rewarding in a sense that we came to realize that we are still lucky for having life different from the life being experienced by the poor. This simple realization will make us even tougher to fight life’s challenges so as not to be one of them. References The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. (2000). Houghton Mifflin Company (4th ed.). The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language. International Edition. Read More