We have now been in Laos 6 months and as yet I have not really seen anything that has shocked me. Not even the fried bats worried me. But today I had my first shock.
As I was walking home from Z's school. I saw a dog lazing on a battered old porch (if that is what it could be called). I was thinking about how poor the people that lived here must be, when I looked over and saw a lady standing over a 44 gallon drum with a fire lit in it. She was standing holding the back legs of a dog and 'spit-roasting' its head.
I was shocked, it was the first time poverty has real hit me slap in the face. I probably need a few more shocks like this to get me to appreciate how easy I have got it.
Source: http://rebeccacameron.blogspot.com/2007/10/shockedpoverty-right-in-front-of-me.html