IN MY LITTLE corner of the world, it seems 2013 is the year we discover poverty.

People who write about travel rarely write about the kind of poverty I'm talking about: dire, life-or-death poverty; subsistence living; life at the edge.

The only time I saw poverty on that scale was passing through the Panama Canal many years ago.

I was on a trans-Pacific crossing and as we exited the last lock, I stood--binocs steadied on the railing--and saw a world I'd only read about, in the city of Colon. As far as I could see, people were living in shacks, under cardboard lean-tos, and beneath slabs of corrugated metal roofing.

Those images were burned into my memory.

My brother is on the Philippine Island of Cebu as I write this. That kind of poverty is all around him. He emailed today:

"Whenever I come to the Philippines the same impressions come back: The abject poverty and lack of cleanliness are two things that hit you; the craziness on the roads, the contrast between the haves (have a lot) and the have nots (ain't got much or ain't got nothin'.)

"But the human spirit prevails, and life goes on "

Life in Philippine cities is better--modern shopping malls, fine universities and hospitals, he writes, and roads have improved in many places by this, his 10th (he thinks) trip there.

"I always return home with a new appreciation of how damned lucky we are," Glen commented.

Nick Cadwallender of Fredericksburg just got back from a family trip to Senegal, where daughter Mary is a Peace Corps volunteer.

Poverty there is depressing, he said. Cadwallender, who has traveled widely, said the poverty--combined with filth and poor infrastructure--was disturbing.

I won't go into detail as Cadwallender, publisher of this newspaper, may write about that trip himself.

But even here there is a positive side. Mary teaches farming to people whose diet is simple grains, day-in and day-out. She has worked miracles in grain production in the 18 months she has worked in the Senegalese village, he said.

Take a look at her blog: marycad.wordpress.com.