Beggars

I’ve had an interesting experience recently, it’s actually not an isolated experience, it was just that I finally realized something new about myself and about my culture.

Here in San Jose, as in most major cities, there are a lot of beggars.  They do a number of things to try and get some money, these people vary from what seems to be the average homeless person to people with severe disabilities.  On the main streets downtown they’ll either just sit or lay down on cardboard with a cup raised up for coins, or walk back and forth along a certain path with a cup out for coins, to playing some sort of instrument.  I’ve noticed that downtown the majority of people who beg are those with severe infirmities (or so it seems).

Also downtown, as well other places like parks, there are local merchants who are selling things off of a blanket they’ve laid down on the ground.  They put themselves right in the middle of where the most foot traffic is.  It seems to me that these people are poorer than the average person and this is what they do to make a living.  They sell cheap little trinkets or toys, used stuff, pirated movies, etc…

Back home we have places specifically designated for these types of activities.  There are buildings and places set aside for commercial activity, at the very least you have to have a permit to sell something on the street.  If you you don’t sell in these places or have a permit you are breaking the law.  Most people will not buy from these kind of vendors in the States.

Likewise with begging, although officially we don’t have set aside places by law where beggars can beg, there are acceptable places that we have deemed as appropriate by our society, if you go out of these boundaries you get the smack-down put on you.  Some acceptable places may be the subway (not in the train though), a street corner, on any street where there are a lot of people.  There are actually laws or codes that also create these “do not cross” lines (“no loitering allowed”).

Because these spaces are so well defined (business, personal, public, private, etc..) when they are violated it feels very uncomfortable (and sometimes seems like an attack).  For instance, in the U.S. it is rare (if ever) that I’ve seen beggars or vendors on public transportation like a city bus (well I do remember a few times someone trying to peddle watches and movies to me, but it was not out in the open and was tried to be done without the knowledge of the conductor).  A public bus is public space, but because they can get really crowded it, at times, can violate our personal private space, making you feel uncomfortable.  If a vendor or beggar were to come on the bus that would even more severely violate my space, “it’s not a commercial place or street,there’s places for that” we would think, and then we’d probably get a little upset for being cornered and not being given a choice to hear what the person would say or given the choice to leave.

Here in Costa Rica those spaces, that are so well defined for me in the States, have been turned upside down.  I pay to take the bus to get downtown, to get from point A to point B.  I did not pay to have someone try and sell something to me or to have someone beg for money from me.  This happens all the time, “There are places for this and they are not here!”, I would think.  People peddling small trinkets or the disabled are allowed to get on the bus and ask for money.  “Why in the world do they allow this? Is this allowed? The bus driver lets him on…why?”  Whenever this happens I get uncomfortable.  They all do something or say something before asking for money or selling their trinket.  They may sing a song, give a message, play an instrument, then they walk up the aisle collecting money.  At this point I make a point not to make eye contact, its awkward for me, when they get next to me and the cup or hand is extended to me I may look away and slightly nod my head no or I just do nothing.  This is the most awkward point.   This situation happens frequently.

The other day a young man got on the bus, he was blind.  He sat down in a front seat, pulled out a guitar and sang a song.  First, I was expecting an absolute horrible song, he was blind after all and he’s playing the guitar.  He actually had a beautiful voice and played the guitar very well.  Something very weird began to happen inside me as he sang and played, I recognized that what he was playing was really good, but then I thought…”wait…I can’t enjoy this, he’s gonna ask for money after this, and if I enjoy it I may feel compelled to give.  After all there are places for giving to people like this and its not here, I give to the church, I give to homeless shelter…etc..”

After he was finished he began to walk down the aisle with his hand out.  For the first time I started to observe how everyone else was reacting to him, they were not uncomfortable.  They accepted this.  They actually would reach out and touch him to get his attention.  The children would put a coin in his hand.  He began to get closer to me, the uncomfortableness began to get higher and higher.  Two rows ahead of me a little girl tried to give him some coins, he was looking that direction and had his hand right in front of her, but she didn’t put the coins in his hand, then he passed right on by, going to the next row.  Her father than tapped the blind man on his side and he turned around and he put the money in his hand.

And then I thought, the skeptic that I am, “he’s faking it, that was a nice move…he’s probably not blind and is taking advantage of everyone.”  My mind was trying to put this in place.  “People like this don’t do this sort of thing on a bus unless they are faking it, after all there are places to take care of them”.  I didn’t give him any money.  But, I was, for a moment, appalled at how many people did give him money (and then I thought back and remembered all the people that gave money to people like this on all the other buses I had been on).

I then began to ask myself why I was feeling this way and why I was thinking these thoughts.  I am thoroughly North American with a multitude of unspoken cultural categories, lines, and values wired in me.  When something different confronts me I try to categorize it according to my innate set of values and rules, but when stuffing my experience into my predefined cultural values box and things still don’t match up, I’m confronted with a serious, most of the time unconscious, decision.  Do I hold fast to “MY way” of doing things and understanding things, passing judgment and being arrogant.  Now, these aren’t necessarily conscious decisions, but they are made and affect the way you live your life and can be discerned by others.  Or do I make the decision to seek understanding, to look at “my way” and see if it is lacking, or at least just different.  Making this decision (often times a conscious one), opens your heart to others, communicates love to those people you are around.  It’s also really hard (and sometimes painful).

I don’t know much about Costa Rican systems, but in the US, we’ve taken the personal responsibility out of taking care of the poor and needy.  We’ve put the responsibility in the hands of the government, nonprofits, or even the corporate church.  But certainly its not my personal responsibility (or even my communities responsibility of which I have a personal stake in), and this is encouraged by the way we’ve segmented our spaces and view our world.  (I’m speaking in generalities here).  We have systems to efficiently take care of the needy, to take care of the poor, to take care of the disabled.  What was supposed to be an act of love has been turned into a way, at times, to make money.  What was supposed to be an act of kindness and sacrifice has been turned into an assembly line, minimizing any sacrifice and demanding those that need, to have their need met in the way we tell them it needs to be met.

Maybe the system here in Costa Rica for taking care of the neediest includes the public domain, people giving to beggars, people buying trinkets, people giving to the blind man on the bus.  Maybe the bus IS the place for it.

What my culture (U.S) says and how my culture (U.S) says things are to be done are not the final answers to problems, nor are the ways that Costa Ricans do things.  What does God say, how does he say we need to take care of the poor and needy?  One way of doing it may be closer than another to what God wants, but ultimately I need to be putting my heart and mind in the hands of God.  Allowing him to show me where my heart is wrong and needs to change.

I have alot more to learn, alot more to observe, alot more baggage to understand, alot more sin to come to light.