The Making of a Better Person

Spending time in the poor countries of our world may make one a better person, but I am not sure it necessarily makes you a happier one. There are simply innumerable ways to lose varying levels of innocence here at a rapid rate (e.g. experiencing death, poverty, injustice, repression firsthand) which can lead to guilt, disillusionment, bewilderment, and, at the end of the pot-holed road, despair. Resilience then becomes such a vital characteristic to possess and grow in this land.

A strange counter to this weariness of wordly souls may be the following phenomena: It could be that it is the relativeness of poverty, not the absolute level, that determines a person's health and social outlook. Will then a middle-class non-black Westerner (called mzungu in Luganda) suddenly thrust into a position of relative wealth and power in Africa reap the physical and psychic benefits of an increase in social position? Or (as has been reported at some of the seedier bars of Africa) will this unearned status elevation lead to a life of gluttony and corruption with the requisite associated unhealthy behaviors? Case studies requested.