I love to read, usually it is just reading for enjoyment, I am one of those people who is always reading a book or two or three at a time. My worst problem is that I usually forget what I have read shortly after reading a book so I really don't read books that would make me smarter or books where I actually might learn something. BUT every once in a while I stumble across a book that really changes my perspective and alters my thinking. I am reading such a book now! "Haiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping of a President"
In this book there is a part where the former President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide is talking about how every Friday they invite children from "slum" areas of Haiti to their home to come and swim they had a bus that would pick up the children who wanted to swim, and I quote;
"This experience, which may appear at first as merely symbolic, has tremendous ramifications. In a country where only twenty percent of the population have access to clean drinking water, swimming pools are exclusively for the rich. There is not a single public swimming pool in Haiti. The pool itself is a symbol of the elite.
We know the kids need food, we know they need school, but we cannot give all of them these things in a day. So while we are working to change society, we can give them a day in a swimming pool. We say no child is so poor she does not deserve to swim in a pool. And if you imagine this has no impact on the society, think again."
This brought tears to my eyes, we just booked our next trip to Haiti and while I can't change the world, I can't change a country, I can't even bring my kids home yet, I can let them swim and let them feel rich if only for a week. This small thing that we provide for our children while we are in Haiti gives them hope of a better day, where little things that we take for granted will become a reality for them, they are getting a small taste of their new life one week at a time.
