I have done a lot of traveling in Asia and Latin America and I saw firsthand that poverty and dirtiness went hand in hand. I realized that the visible poverty that I saw was a case not of the lack of money as much as the lack of education. My mom always told me that it doesn’t cost to be clean.
I see that much of the abject poverty is to accompanied by a lack of cleanliness. Parents will let their kids swim in trash infested waters and then fret when their children got sick. They will let the dirt build up around their home and not try to keep things clean and then wonder why they are getting sick.
I am sure some people can claim that the depression from the grinding poverty is causing them to ignore cleanliness and maybe that is so. Maybe people need to get some happiness, but remember that money can’t buy happiness.
Thinking about this has changed my whole outlook. The poor need to know the truth more than anything and that means finding the Lord.