College Essay # 215

215. A disappointment you've experienced.

Living in a country filled with poverty, my family and I have come across a lot of little kids begging on the streets. They either try to sell us some postcards or they just plainly beg for money. Most of the time we’ve been really conformed to turn the other way, but there are times when you give in and try to help the other person out. We’ve been taught that giving money to little kids only gives him or her another reason to go buy drugs and get high. Many times, we’ve seen kids holding old, dirty plastic bags sniffing the contents within. Though, we don’t know exactly what is in those plastic bags, we can pretty much guess. Today, however, was different.

A little girl approached my mother, my sister, and I with a pile of postcards. We instantly knew what she wanted. She was wearing an old, almost yellowed salwar kameez and I instantly felt she was different from the rest of the kids down the infamous area, Thamel, where all the kids huddled together and sniffed plastic bags. She did not look rowdy nor did she insist that we buy something. She merely asked us whether we wanted to buy her postcards. When my mother asked how much she replied, “ten rupees.” While contemplating on whether the money should be given to her or not, a group of guys walked past us. But the problem was, they didn’t JUST walk past us. The guy in the middle extended his arm and slapped the girl hard on the head. I looked at him, bewildered, while he just walked away, as though it was something that he did on a regular basis … hit poor, underprivileged children. Still shocked, I watched my mother take out a ten-rupee note and hand it to that girl. I watched the exchange. But before the girl took the money, she wiped her tear stricken face. We walked away. My sister and I turned around to look and see what that girl was going to do. I was expecting her to stare at the newfound money that she got, but instead, I saw that little girl, not older than six years old, against a wall, covering her face and crying. Everyone walked past as though nothing was wrong.

I felt guilty. I wanted to do something, but what could we possibly do? We tried out best to help her out. There are always things in the news, which inform us that foreigners come into third world countries and help out the poor. They build orphanages, they open NGOs … they try their best to reduce poverty as much as they can. The disappointment I face is that these foreigners try their best to rid poverty in others’ countries but the people of Nepal don’t seem to care about anything. They complain about the kids sniffing drugs, they complain about the homeless lying on the foot wide sidewalk giving them no space to walk and they complain about being followed by beggars asking for money. I am disappointed that people of this country complain about endless things but don’t have the heart and to reach out and do something.