Dollars really stretch in India, but just what are dollars?

Subhendu is our child whom we have sponsored the longest. He came to us in January of 2004 when CI left Nepal. Our very 1st sponsored child was Rajesh
in Nepal whom we sponsored in April of 2003. In January of 2004 we got a letter from CI stating that due to political tensions in Nepal, CI was ceasing operations in that country. I was of course very upset by this but there was nothing I could do about it. CI has to be concerned for the safety of it's staff and volunteers. My one consolation is that when I first started sponsoring him, I had sent Rajesh a special needs gift (SNG) of $100 which provided his family with a mother goat and kid. I hope that they still have those goats and that the herd has increased and brought better nutrition and more wealth to the family. Rajesh is one of three children we have sponsored and lost prior to the normal age (19) at which children graduate from the program. More about them in future posts.

So CI suggested Subhendu for our consideration and we were glad to accept him as our new sponsored child. He was 7 when he came to us and is turning 14 this May. He lives with both parents and one older brother. He is doing well in school and has passed every year's exam to enter the next grade. The family has a one room brick house with mud floor and concrete roof. They have wooden beds and a wood burning stove for cooking. Electricity is available but expensive and prone to outages. Water is carried from a community pump. His favorite school subject is languages and he likes to draw, play badminton and run in his free time. The family earns an average of $53 a month.

In January I sent an SNG of $100 for Subhendu and I recently got the letter and photos of what it purchased for him. He is standing in front of a steel cabinet with some display compartments and some locking ones for valuables. These are very popular in India. Next to him is an emergency lantern and he's holding part of a new badminton set and wearing new jeans and a new shirt. All of these things were purchased with my $100 SNG. A very good investment of my money I think.

Speaking of which, just what the heck is money, that slippery stuff? Have you ever really thought about it? Some folks say that money is a means of exchange, a store of value. But if you were stranded in the Amazon among indigenous folks who have never seen the stuff, do you think you'd be able to exchange some of your funny colored pieces of paper for the things you'd need to survive? Some people think money is security, but if you were walking down a dark alley in the worst neighborhood of a large city would that suitcase of money handcuffed to your wrist make you feel more secure or more nervous? Smarter people than I have devoted time and thought to this question. One of them was Joe Dominguez, co-author of one of the most important books I have ever read, called Your Money or Your Life. Joe says the one consistently true statement he ever found that could be made about money was this:

Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for.

Our life energy is all we really have and we trade it in numerous ways for money. For any money that comes into your life you have traded some of your life energy. Working is the obvious way we do this. But what about an inheritance? You probably spent time with lawyers, notaries, and financial folks to take possession. You may even have had to spend time in court. What about unemployment? Please, all the forms you have to fill out, all the time spent in line. Lottery winners spend time choosing numbers and scratching off the cards. Slot machine players spend hours in smoky casinos pulling on the one armed bandit. But what about the quarter you found on the street today? You had to take the time and energy to bend over and pick it up.

So if money equals life energy, what are you trading your life energy for? And what are you spending your precious life energy on? More about that next time.