Poverty in India

We have no idea what poverty is in America.. When I first took many photos like these, I could not bring myself to post any of them.  It took me a few days of being here to grasp the poverty of this country..  but after Sushil told me the story behind the baby picture, I realized by the tone of his voice that this is life in India. 

In this picture above, these two little boys were playing in a garbage pile.  The have some sort of material wrapped around them to cover them up.. every once in a while the material would fall off and they would be running around naked.. their mother is laying on the ground sleeping with a naked baby. (She is around the corner and not in this picture).

We stopped at a gas station outside of Agra because one of the ladies in our group has gotten sick.  During this stop, we witness a crying baby on the ground with a rope tied to the baby’s ankle.  The other end of the rope was tied to a brick.  Sushil explained that the baby’s parents are working near by.  This is ok in India’s society to leave the baby while the parents are working.

Also.. because this was an emergency stop, the group had its first experience with really bad bathrooms in our standards.  The ladies bathroom is a squat hole.  Nothing fancy like I posted earlier.. and poor Donna who is sick had to use the squat hole.  Oh.. and I almost forgot.. you have to pay a nominal fee to the shop owner to use the squat hole!  The other twist to the bathrooms is the gentlemen’s bathroom is a western style toilet that we are accustomed to in America.  Of course, Sushil told the men on the bus to use the bathroom Indian style so they didn’t have to pay.. of course they had to try it!

Here is CSS MBA students using the public toilets in India.. 

I fully warned them.. they set themselves up to be posted ;)