Just some thoughts:

One thing, everyone I’ve met here, has in common that stands out to me is: God’s plan.  God’s plan for their kids, His plan for their families, for them and for me.  Wherever our lives take us, he has a plan for us.  If a child is stillborn – it’s okay because God wanted the child with him and not on the Earth.  Parents accept it, whereas I would probably loose all faith in anything.  I have seen people struggle with faith before but here there is no struggle, faith is not a question.  There’s no doubt and that is what keeps them so alive, happy and hopeful. 

It’s easy to think that if you live with just about nothing that there would be no hope.  But that is the exact opposite, the people here don’t need western missionaries telling them how to have faith and how to have hope in God.  God is more present here then any church I’ve ever been to.  People here might be fighting with their lives to put food on the table but they never loose faith.  I never heard anyone asking God for anything, they were always thanking Him for what they had.  Many people told me that they were “so grateful that God brought me here.”  Whether you believe in God or not, if he’s what makes people so happy and keeps them going in life then you have to admit he’s damn pretty powerful.  God is really here in these people, he isn’t so much with the people that pray only when they want something or are sick (although that works for many people and I’m fine with that), he’s among those who pray for what they have and just for the life that has been given to them.  You can physically see the faith, the hope in a father who tells you he still has 5 children even though 2 died very young; in the smile of a child as he runs up to hold my hand; in a group of school children that sit under a tree to learn math on a small whiteboard; and in the face of the women slaving for hours over a tiny stove to put dinner on the table.  This isn’t a kind of faith that you can find just anywhere.