Day 3 - The Other Side of the Hotel

Early this morning I posted about the two different worlds that exist on opposite sides of our hotel. Our room overlooks what I called the "have-nots". I promised pictures from the opposite side of the hotel today - the "haves". Here's the view.

In talking with Howie (the missionary) today, we were enlightened. In typical American fashion it seems we have categorized the wrong people as "have-nots". Here's a transcript of our conversation taken from our video camera as we were overlooking a nearly identical neighborhood:

HOWIE: They say that there's an estimated one million that live on the street - do not have homes. They may have a relative that they sleep with at night or something but do not have anyplace to go. Unless a relative takes them in they live on the street.

TRACY: These are what you would consider better-off people?

HOWIE: These are people with homes. There are people who'd be rich, but they are few. These are the - I don't know if it's fair to say - middle class, probably. Middle class people. But, they're not to be pitied. They've got families, they eat well...you know. It's just a different...

RHONDA: In general, are they happy?

HOWIE: In general they're happy unless an American comes in and says "you don't have enough" and we make them unhappy because they begin to think they don't.