Thursday, April 22, 2010
This morning we had guests for breakfast, Erin, Alana, Bill and Wayne. Wayne is one of the founders of Health Bridges International, and he shares a story of suffering with us, the story that changed his life and prompted him to work with his in-laws to start HBI. He is a doctor, formerly a family practice physician, who is no longer practicing due to his work with HBI. He is passionate about helping the poor. He also has a big smile and witty manner.
Erin and Alana are nurses who will be presenters at the upcoming medical conference in Arequipa, and Bill is a doctor presenter. After breakfast, the guests and some other volunteers and I join Maria the social worker in a long and dusty walk up the road to some of the homes in this vicinity. When I stand at my bedroom window at the guest house at night, and look out, I can see millions of twinkling lights below, which you don't really notice in the daytime. It is hard to imagine in the daylight when walking these dusty roads, passing house after unfinished house, that this neighborhood is a part of the city below. In some ways, it really is not a part of that city below. Here, where we are walking, the poverty is so pronounced that people's one meal a day comes from the soup kitchen at Fr. Alex's mission. 700 people are fed every day, and that is but a drop in the bucket. It is difficult to fathom. Yet Maria takes one step at a time to try to fathom it and to do what she can, and invites us along in order to open our eyes to this way of life.
We meet Jose, who is 9 years old. He is home while his mother is out looking for some work to do; he has a 2-year-old sister to take care of. We meet a man and his wife, who have 3 children 5 and younger, who offer us their "plaintainis" which are miniature bananas. We tell them thank you, but no, trying to be gracious and appreciative but at the same time not wanting to deplete their already meager supply of food. She is sick with respiratory disease and has been in hospital close to death, not able to afford the treatment she was recommended. Her husband speaks well of her, saying what a beautiful, noble heart she has, but that her poor health makes her sad.
We go into a pre-school and the little children are darling! Their eyes are wide, smiles ready. We crouch down and they sit on our laps in the doorway of the tiny, modest pre-school with a corrugated tin roof. They like having their "fotos" taken with us. They put their soft little arms around our necks and are amazingly patient while Bill takes photos with 3 different cameras so we can each take a memory home with us. Without a photograph, I hope they remember us too.
I remember what Ben's "boring poverty statistics" told us, that half of the world's 2 million children are living in this type of poverty, and that each day, 25,000 of them die from poverty-related causes. Death toll of 25,000 is a number you hear when there is a disaster such as a tsunami or an earthquake, or a horrible avalanche. The poverty avalanche. The mild, meek, unseen poor.
We visit one of the 10 drop-off points for the feeding program. It is about 12:30 people are gathering here to receive their food. There are 5-gallon buckets which have been dropped off by volunteers, full of delicious-smelling food. A smiling woman shows us her bowl in which there is rice, beans and a vegetable concoction, bright with orange carrots and greens. We are thankful with them for this bowl of nourishment.
Several hundred meters further down the road, a group is gathered in protest, and a police line is formed on the right of the road. People are protesting that there is a water conduit being put into the ground because they want to use this land to build their homes on. They have made plans to "squat" here and perhaps have already moved their families out of previous dwellings. They will have to go elsewhere. I don't understand this way of thinking and I realize it is because I am not poor. And no, these people are not poor BECAUSE of this way of thinking. They are poor because there are no jobs here, and no opportunities. It is almost impossible to fathom. Again.
20 minutes later, our dusty feet returning us to the compound, we meet Scholastica in her kitchen, where she prepared this food. She and her helpers do an amazing job.
In the afternoon we had a meeting with Fr. Alex and Dr. Bob. Looking at Fr. Alex, I remember that he was a personal friend to Mother Teresa. Her portrait hangs in his office by the clinic, and when we were visiting there several days ago and commented on it, he told us that he would always pick her up at the airport when she came to visit. I stupidly said, "So when I shook your hand, I was shaking a hand that touched Mother Teresa's hand...." and he patiently said "let's not go there" or something to that effect, and he laughed. I remind myself of the apostles who were with Jesus on the mountaintop, when they offered to build him a tabernacle right there on the spot and he told them to get a life.
Our meeting focused on how to most effectively keep Affinity Health Care in the Fox Valley connected with this mission at Alto Cayma, Arequipa. There is already another group visit planned for the fall, but what about in between times? Some good ideas are brought out and we adjourn to other activities.
I then go over to the Day Care, where I have not yet visited due to being ill yesterday. The children are fewer in number because it is now the end of the afternoon. Lauren, one of the volunteers, comes with me and interprets. I sing with the 3 different groups of children, a song with actions involving the hands and some simple Spanish words that I practiced over and over and over and over and over and over again before coming on this trip. They still feel clumsy on my lips in front of these bright, active children whose language spills like water over their lips to my ears. The song is fun and full of up and down actions. The children are full of hugs and one of the little boys hits me because I think he isn't sure what else to do. He is one of the "hard-to-handle" ones. He then holds my hand and it is OK. Mostly I get lots of hugs and kisses and it is wonderful!
After supper Dr. Bob and I go to the kitchen to tell Veronica our cook, that she should go home and we will do the dishes. She is happy to comply and tells us "dream with the angels" which in Spanish is a phrase I cannot now reiterate, but is sounds beautiful. A few from the group go downtown, the rest of us finish the dishes and sit and talk the evening away, mostly about TV shows like "The Bachelor". One of Lauren's friends was actually on the show. We wonder out loud with each other why we have shows like this, but probably more, why we bother talking about it! I think about Julia, my daughter who likes this show, and feel how far away she is, in Finland.
I go to bed 3 different times, each time thinking of something different, mostly things to look at on the computer. My roommate Linda is one of the people who went downtown, so at heart I am probably just waiting for her to come back. A Mom thing? The dogs are barking outside; they bark like this when they gather into big packs and run up and down the dirty hills. They seem to be fighting with one another but they mostly just stir up whirlwinds of dust, and bark. Linda and the others come back - she has had pisco sour and is very happy. I go to bed again and the barking dogs keep me awake for the first time since we arrived here. I think it is really something else that is keeping me awake, but I cannot put a finger on it. I go to sleep finally, and dream about living a life on the bleachers, as a spectator.
I get up at 4 a.m. and write this blog.
Dorothy Zerbe
To hear "A Long Way To Go" songs, go to: http://cdbaby.com/cd/dorothyzerbe
To hear "Rooted and Free" songs, go to: http://cdbaby.com/cd/dorothyzerbe2
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