Poverty

Man,last weekend I went to my little cousins house and they got it bad. I thought I had it bad but it's not until I saw what they were going through. I walked in to the house and it was a total me.ss. My auntie has three boys and one girl. The oldest one is the girl her name is Maria,the second oldest is Genaro,the third one his name is Jose,and the last one is named Alexis. They are 12, 11, 6,and 4 months old. My uncle loves his children but he blows most of his money on cigarettes. He also has various parties,knowing that he is not financially stable. My other auntie lives at their house too,she is really sick and is disabled.
It's crazy the way they live because if having a lot of people isn't enough imagine having four dogs to feed to. I asked my auntie why she had so many pets and she said that it made her kids happy. I respect that and all but I think she should get pets after they get more stable income. They also live in a very ghetto area. They live in 106th in Birch Street. Genaro,my little cousin, told me that the cops came twice in a row that week. He was present when this man had a gun on his way to the liquor store, he quickly hid behind the bushes all he saw was the man running and the cops pursuing him.The second one was because his neighbors from across the street had a bunch of weapons and drugs, the people escaped and moved I guess but the cops confiscated everything in the house. I was surprised that their parents still let them play outside the house.
Another thing that I saw that was sad, was the fact that they didn't have that much clothes or shoes. My other uncle gives him the hand me downs from his children and my mom occasionally buys them clothes or gets clothes from the school that they get for free. The only one that gets new things sometimes is Maria because shes a girl.
Maria has it hard because her brothers always fight with her and when her parents leave somewhere she has to take care of the boys.She also has to do various chores and clean up after their little brothers. Genaro also has it bad because all he aches for is too spend more time with his dad,he talks to me about how he wishes he was rich and that they had a better,happier life. Whenever he gets money from his parties,he gives it to his parents because he says he wants to help out. Jose is very bubbly and adorable,but he has speaking issues. When I first met him like when he was about five years old he never talked with or in front of me he would stay silent.He has also been held back a year because he does bad at school.Sometimes they don't even have enough to buy food.They don't have internet but at least they finally got cable. I love them so much and I'm so proud that they endure and persevere through tough situations. That's why I love having them at my house because we have a blast and they get to eat and play video games as much as they want.