Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Food for Thought

Picture yourself in a hut. Not a small one, moderate in size. Maybe twenty feet square. The walls are made of branches and the roof of grass. The outside is lined with beds made of bamboo, enough for twenty people. In the center of the hut an elderly woman is boiling water over a fire. You're sitting on a log, trying to see across the room at whose talking to you, but you give up as your eyes tear from all the smoke. It's late, you're ready for bed, but you're hungry and still waiting to eat.
My host brother in his "car".
There is a lot of crying tonight. The children have all come down with chicken pox. The youngest, maybe a year old, has an awful cough. He's had diarrhea for days and can't hold down any food. You know he needs to see a doctor and so do the parents. But, there's no money to make the trip. As you drink your dinner, the question that pains you the most to hear finally comes: "Can we borrow some money?"

Germo cutting wood for the house.

You know very well that "borrow" means "have", but that doesn't even register in your mind. Just five dollars could feed twenty for two or three days. Five more and the mom could make the needed trip with her baby to the hospital.

What do you do?

Bring on the wood!

I imagine for all of us the answer would be the same. The opportunity to make such a difference in their life, for so little, would be answered without question.

But what if you're not just passing through? This isn't a summer trip to build houses or a spring break trekking through the hills of a third world country. This is two years with one village...excuse me, one small group of houses. And your job is to make a difference in their lives that will help both them and future generations. You are to teach them how to use what they have to live better, healthier lives.

That's 50 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of beans for Mother's Day!
By giving them money you are setting precedence for them to ask again. Every day.
There’s an adage that goes something like:
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.
The kids in La Laguna on Mother's Day.
By giving them money, would you really be teaching them anything? Can you live with the pain of not helping them this time?
To take it one step further, what if you're beginning to realize that the change that needs to take place is fundamental. It needs more time than you've got. It would take a lifetime, or generations rather, to teach.
What, then, do you do?
Peña Blanca from a distance.
I believe that there is still plenty that both you and I can do for these people. But, this time, do you give them money? Also, it makes me wonder, what if the only way to fish were with a pole. And that pole took longer to make than your "man" has to live.
What then?
The sunset in La Laguna.

A full moon in Peña Blanca.

Hiking to Peña Blanca.

More views...

More pretty pics...

More sunsets...

Religious camp between La Laguna and Peña Blanca.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is jessica, and my dad know's your mom though his work.
I've been interested in mission work and also considered the peace corps. However, I've only heard the "horror" stories and not much about day to day activities of the peace corp. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading some of your blogs and especially enjoyed this one.
I'd be interested in talking with you further about your experience as you have time.
my e-mail is jessicawilmoth@gmail.com if you are interested.
Best of luck in your endevors
~jessica