Where Wonder Meets Wander

Two months ago, Lee was playing baseball in a field full of garbage with some of the kids on the island of Carenero. An 11 year old girl struck him out. Of course everyone laughed and Lee made his way down the little path that runs through the village where he soon ran into a guy named Javier. Javier speaks great English and is a business owner in the village. The two of them started up a conversation about the conditions the kids were playing in and before you know it, they had agreed to meet the next morning with garbage bags to do a little clean up. The next morning the two of them and about 6 kids spent several hours cleaning up. A week later, the entire town got together and took out 5,000 bags of garbage! And that was just the beginning. Two months later: A few days ago we walked though the village again. I was shocked by how many changes have been made. Probably about 75 percent of the homes have some change besides being cleaner and having their grass cut: new p...

This is Eddy. He calls me "Boss." Eddy is a drug dealer. I would tell you what he sells, but I don't know. And to tell you the truth, I really don't care. What I do care about is how Eddy is feeling today and how his elderly mother is doing. I see Eddy often on the streets in Bocas Del Toro. He is usually on his bicycle and seems to carry a sad look on his face most of the time. But not today. Today he was filled with hope. You see, Eddy doesn't want to sell drugs. He wants to sell shish kabobs from a little food cart in the street. He has a plan and he found a used food cart he can get for a great price. But he doesn't have the funds to get the cart. Today we talked to Eddy about helping him buy his little food cart. We talked to him about an easy business plan and about how to stand out from the crowd so really can make enough money to support himself doing something he feels good about. I have spent the last 5 years wandering around Central Am...

I have been living in Central for nearly five years now and, while I have been here, I have attempted to spend time with and understand the local people. It has been a crazy journey that has taken me to places as far off the grid as I think it is possible to get. In the process, I have come to believe that we, as Western people, need to re-define poverty. I will write more about that later, but lets just say that things are not always what they seem. Right now, I just want to highlight the poverty I am seeing in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. This is home to the Ngboe Indians. They live on the out islands here and are very good at living an off-the-grid, holistic lifestyle. However, they recently have been exposed to TV, cell phones, and the internet with, I think, devastating effects. Exposure to what I would like to call bling bling, has created a drive to leave their old way of life and try to embrace a much more materialistic way of living. Most of these people grew up on f...

This is Aniwal...we call him Ani. (He is Ubaldino's little brother) Today he started school (after summer vacation...summer is winter here) with two new school uniforms, new shoes, and a new backpack full of school supplies. The kids here in Panama have to have uniforms for school. Without them, they cannot attend school. Thanks so much to the people who helped support us. Your charity sent the little guy, who is an orphan by the way, to school for another year. We cannot fix everything. But we can make a difference if we just start with the person we see, the one who comes to our attention. Compassion is not just about looking at a sea of affliction across the face of this planet. That is an overwhelming problem that paralyzes us. Things change when you slow down and get to know someone. When you find you CAN do something for one person. And if each of us just stops for the one in front of us, together, we CAN change the world. Doing something, anything, laura ...