The worst poverty is mental poverty

Strolling this week through a town called Barlovento here in Venezuela, I came across a house that taught me some great lessons. This town has a lot of poverty, it is difficult to find the money to subsist and even more to buy the right materials to build a decent house. Poverty is pervasive in many parts of the world, however, the worst poverty is the one we have in our minds.

Despite the difficult economic situation in this town, many people have proven to be excellent minimalists. It is kind of ironic, how to be minimalist with so much poverty, what else is there to simplify, some may ask. From my point of view, minimalism does not depend on whether you have a lot or a little, but it is having the ability to be content with our possibilities and strive to improve them if it is within our reach.

The owner of this house that is under construction understands the point perfectly. He does not have enough to buy blocks, cement and rebar, but this has not prevented him from carrying out his construction because he has no mental poverty. Here in this village there is a lot of vegetation, so he has been using nature's resources to build his house. Bamboo, bitter cane, wood, sheet metal and mud have been the materials he has used, but beyond his creativity and his ability to make such a beautiful construction there is a spirit of love that drives him to carry out his work with great care.

The owner has not been satisfied with making a flimsy house of boards, he has calculated everything and with the resources that are within his reach he is carrying out his project. It will take longer than others who only put up zinc sheets to build their house, but it has been worth it. I love the way his construction is going and I am convinced that it will be spectacular. Seeing this house under construction has taught me that we should not put limits to our imagination, nor resign ourselves to live in a tiring way because our mind is capable of doing great things with what is within our reach.

Talking a little with the people of the village, they told me that there are many factors that must be taken into account to cut the bamboo and the bitter cane. They mentioned that you have to wait for the waning quarter moon because the new and full moon makes the materials more prone to some animals making their little houses in these woods and eventually they eat them and therefore the house is damaged very quickly. I was also told that the bases must be of a resistant wood, so although the town has many natural resources, our dear builder has looked for the ideal wood for his bases. With the future in mind he has selected the strongest materials and has taken the time to make his building.

I would love to see it finished but I am not going to stay long in this town. Maybe later I will come back and see it. The truth is that it is very gratifying to find people who, in the midst of whirlwinds, move forward with a good attitude and without mental poverty.

All photos are my own, taken with a Realme 7i.