A Boy in Oaxaca

I recognized him immediately because he was still wearing his big white painter's cap with the visor pulled so far down that I couldn't see his face. I had watched him last evening, going from table to table trying to sell his little box of bubble gum. He may have been 8 years old but he was very small and very thin.

Unfortunately the gum looked as though he had found it in a trash bin behind some grocery store. Last evening the people at each table would look at the box of gum and shake their heads. But I saw that many of them tried to give him money. Each time they did that he would shake his head "no" and scurry away.

This afternoon as I watched, he was following the same pattern. It was very clear that he didn't want charity. He wanted to earn money and this was the only way he could think of to do so.

When we help people who are in need, we must be careful to do so in ways that preserve their dignity.