stealing from the poor

This isn't really about stealing from the poor.  But I am going to open up the door on a variety of different topics today.

I was carousing through Facebook this morning and I saw a picture take by Brant Hansen.  Look him up, he's a cool dude.   But he was kayaking and saw a seal attacking a fisherman in a boat.  So he took a picture.  He already had his phone out and wasn't in a position to help the man.  It made me wonder why the seal was jumping into this mans boat.  Well, the fisherman appeared to be cutting up a fish.  Seal was hungry.  Fisherman had a fish.  Seal was going to go get that fish.  Fisherman probably will defend his fish.  In this situation, you can't really blame either of them.  The man went out to catch food from the ocean.  This is fine.  The seal is going after food.  This is fine.  Neither one, in my opinion is right or wrong.  However, the fisherman could easily get food elsewhere.  But what if the fisherman took a vow to only catch food and harvest food himself?  I think Seal would have understood.  Perhaps they would have shared.  Yeah.  I'm sure they would have shared because they both knew the struggles in catching your food everyday.

Something that always bugged me about missions trips.  Massive swarms of people go into impoverished countries and do work.  Like physical labor, building and stuff.  They are like the fisherman.  I'd be pissed if a foreigner came in a took work that I could have done.  Now, I realize the group probably funded the materials for the project.  That should be where their work stops.  Otherwise the seal may attack out of frustration that their meal is being taken.  If only the missions people knew the struggle of finding work and earning money to feed your family.  They'd probably share in their abundance and hire the local community to do the work and pay them a fair wage for the days help.  This theory may or may not help.  But I'm sure it may serve a better purpose than a group going home just to say "Hey everyone, look what I did!"  Maybe I'm wrong...but that's how I see it in my head.

Let's talk about chickens now.

Never mind.  I'll save that for tomorrow.  Along with Christmas trees.

When we were in Haiti last weekend we took our sponsor child to dinner on the beach.  It was awesome.  He had a blast.  While we were there, there was a local boy trying to sell seashells.  They were nice seashells.  I didn't have any money on me to buy any, but he ended up giving me some.  It was very hard to take them.  I refused.  It went against everything I always told people.  I always said it's an honor for them if you accept a gift.  But I was playing these stupid mind games with myself.  Thinking he'd come back with his older brother and blame me for taking seashells without paying.  How much of an asshole am I?   Hungry seals attack you know.  I would to if I was hungry.  But that's not what this boy was doing at all.  He understands that if he is kind, it draws people in.  So I accepted the seashells.  We gave them to our sponsor child and his friend.  We ended up buying some souvenirs from the vendors as well.  And also helped keep the restaurant in business.  And I will say, it was some of the best food I've ever had.  EVER.