It’s not the absence of ice in my drink; or the two flushers on the toilet (one for big, one for small). It’s not the single napkin I receive in a restaurant. It’s not even the obligatory coffee and the roundabout approach to business. The differences don’t surprise me most. It’s the similarities.

It’s the substandard education. It’s the hunger, the poverty. It’s the hopelessness.

I never knew my time working in Helena-West Helena, Ark., would help prepare me for Kosice, Slovakia. I never thought a rural southern town of 15,000 had much to do with an Eastern European city of 250,000. The previous two summers I’ve worked with Together for Hope among the marginalized in the Mississippi Delta. And during these years I’ve witnessed the effects of poverty. Deeper, I’ve seen the effects of mistrust and profound cultural misunderstandings.

And now here I am in Eastern Europe, hearing similar stories, witnessing hunger, poverty, substandard education. I’ve discovered striking parallels in these pockets of poverty 5,000 miles apart. And I see, firsthand, that poverty truly isn’t reserved to a single continent or people group. The United States is not exempt from this reality. Europe is not exempt from this reality. No one is exempt from this reality. Poverty afflicts people of all nations. Sure, the color of skin changes from country to country, city to city, village to village. But the problems remain the same. Mistrust and misunderstanding separate the majority and the minority. I’m not most shocked by the differences in this place and the home I left behind. I’m shocked by its resemblance.