It was a typical Monday morning for me, grab some money, head to the exchange office and get those Euros changed into Denars, and then off to the post office where you pay all your bills in one place. Like I said it was a typical Monday morning and the typical crowd was sitting at the entrance to the post office . . . sitting mostly on cardboard boxes. I have always wondered why they beg for money in front of the Post Office?
At times I can be really slow and not very bright . . . and while I was counting my change after paying my bills, it finally occurred to me why they sit in front of the Post Office. Its because those who have bills to pay, are people who have money. The ones begging are so poor, they have no bills to pay. "Not possible David!" you might say, but yet it is. They have no mortgage because they do not own the property where they have constructed their little house . . . they are squatters. They pay no water bill because they have no running water in their house . . . they steal it from someone else's house, or they get water from the river. They have no sewage bill, because they have no toilet in the house. They all use outhouses . . . if anything at all. They have no electricity bills because they are stealing the electricity from someone else nearby, or simply do without. Renegade usage of electricity is a huge challenge here. They have no heating bill, because they burn scraps, or once again do without. And finally they have no garbage pick-up charges, because they themselves pick through the garbage every day, week after week. Trust me, it is perfectly possible to live and have no bills, because you have no resources, and you do not have the basic necessities of life.
It has been said that America's poor are far better off than the poor elsewhere . . . and that may be more true than we realize. At least our poor have bills to pay. As I left the post office, who would have ever thought that I would be glad, really glad for all those expensive bills?
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