This Poor Little Boy

I went to a Botanical Garden in Bali this summer and it was fantastic! I really loved
it. There were so many visitors enjoying themselves. On the way out I saw this poor
little mite. He's only nine and he was there with a sack and a stick with him.


I was hesitant to ask him at first, but anyway I did ask what on earth he was doing
in there. I frightened him a bit I guess for being a bit forward. He told me that he
was there to collect all the empty plastic bottles that people discarded wherever they wish, put them in that sack and sell them. It was for pocket money really but it just didn't feel right for me to see him doing that, while other people were having fun. Imagine if your own son, who you would rather let him spend his spare time playing with his mates, were to do this everyday? So I asked him what he gets for the sack and he said that he can sell them for IDR 3.000 per kilogram. I really didn't know what to say to that.

Although I did do some things for my own pocket money and did a lot harder than him when I was that age, I just couldn't bear the fact that somebody else has to go through similar things that I had. Come to think of it, I did enjoy what I did and that was that. So in the end I just gave him IDR 5,000 and he had this wide smile on his face.

I hope he's fine now and cope well with his life. And one day I do hope that he will be an important somebody. You'll never know you know. Never underestimate and look down on children, no matter how grubby they may look like now.

Peace,
C