A Sad Personal Insight Into Caribbean Begging 😟

Firstly, I used a photo of Dogs begging from Pixabay because images of real people or children begging is so depressing to me. Begging is a serious issue in many Countries (not all of them poor Countries) either. Even in the UK there are often beggars sat on pavements (outside shops) in the side streets of London. It has probably been going on for Centuries (I don't know the exact statistics). Below are some of my personal memories from several years ago, which may be very different now.

I hope so...

Above Photo Source: Pixabay [here]

• Caribbean Begging

My first experience of begging in the Caribbean was on a "Cruise Ship" holiday. The ship docked close to a small island off the south cost of Argentina. A one day Shopping Trip had been arranged to visit all of the Gold Shops in the small town. This seemed like a fun thing to do, so we joined the organized coach trip. When we arrived at the destination the coach driver told us not to give anything to the kids who will come begging. He told us that the children were sent out by their poor parents to obtain money from tourists. If they came home with cash, then they were sent out again the next day, instead of going to School. There were about six of them of different ages (but mostly younger than 10 years old). Possibly all from one family (hard to be sure). The Coach driver only gave them bottles of water and then they went away, to beg somewhere else!

• Such a very sad way to live don't you think?

Another occasion of begging was on a "one day excursion" to a sandy bay named locally as "Dr.Dolittle Bay" (after the Movie title). As the boat got close to the mooring jetty kids were jumping into the water. They were strong, healthy and looked very experienced swimmers. It soon became very obvious that they wanted us to throw coins into the water for them to dive down and collect. Many of the Tourists participated in this activity, which at first seemed fun and we enjoyed watching them diving down deep into the crystal clear water.

All seemed great for a while, but then their happy smiling mood began to change into anger! They became more insistent for people to throw more coins and fighting with each other. Now there were about five kids doing this about fourteen or fifteen years of age (hard to say exactly how old they were).

Now this activity was NOT funny anymore ~ It just made me feel very sad, as blood from their faces dripped into the water. If you think that I'm exaggerating! I promise you that I'm definitely NOT exaggerating...

• Any form of BEGGING is so very SAD 😟

Lastly, Please Stay safe! and healthy everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my latest "Life Blog" for Today!
See you all again very soon... 🙋‍♂️