The Luck of the Draw

This past weekend Guatemala was on every news channel all over the world. One of the active volcanoes here, Pacaya, erupted and caused quite a bit of damage and covered many areas in ash. Then the tropical storm, Agatha, came and left Guatemala not only soaked, but covered in sticky ash which has clogged drains and been a nightmare for the people living in it. Where I am, in the department of San Marcos, we were not affected by the ash, but we were greatly affected by the storm.

I love rain. I have always loved rainy days and one of my most favorite things in the world is waking up to the rain pelting my window. I like walking in the rain because I know I can go home and change my wet shoes and socks. I know I can go home and drink a glass of hot tea or take a hot shower. But that is not the case for the majority of people here in San Marcos. People think I am crazy when I tell them I love the rain, but that is because it does not affect my life like it affects the life of people here. There is small town very close to where I live here in San Marcos and the fire department wanted to evacuate the people. Most of the people in the town are very poor and live in tiny wood houses. Wood houses with huge gaps in the walls and in the roof. These houses were drenched, everything inside was sopping wet. The cooking stoves were too wet to start fires, and there was not a piece of dry wood to be found anyway. These people were trying desperately to find a few tortillas to eat, because they could not cook anything, or heat their homes, or boil water to have safe drinking water. So the fire department comes in and wants to evacuate.

Where are these people supposed to go?

They don´t have money to pay for a hotel. There entire family lives in the same town, in the same conditions. There only option is to stay put, they don´t have any choice. So they will stay in their wet homes without anything to eat, and will drink dirty water to stay alive. That is the only choice they have, the choice to drink dirty water and risk getting sick, or dying.

Can you imagine that being your only choice?

So, during this storm I was sitting in the living room of Judy, my boss, with Elvia, the lady I live with. We were baking chocolate chip cookies, making bread, and eating hot soup. We were discussing how prepared we were with enough food, candles, and gas, in case another Hurricane Stan occurs, when people were out of supplies for days. Well we start watching the news and hear about all the flooding happening on the coast, how the electricity is out, bridges being swept away, and landslides. And we change to the local channel and hear about this tiny town two or three miles from where we are sitting. And someone says, it is always the poor people who suffer the worst. And I thought, it is the poor who suffer period. Here I am, baking cookies and people are fighting over tortillas. Here I am, wrapped in cozy blankets with toasty warm feet inside my Ugg boots. And here is this mother with her tiny child wrapped in a rain drenched blanket, with plastic sandals on her feet. Here I am eating hot soup, and this mother can´t start a fire to heat up some water to drink.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the unfairness in the world. Why was I born into my life, and that mother into hers? Is it the luck of the draw? What have I ever done to deserve what I have, and what did she do to deserve not having anything? I can´t get a certain Bible passage out of my head from John 9:1-3. Jesus and his disciples encounter a man born blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, ¨Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God´s works might be revealed in him.¨ And Jesus proceeds to cure the man.
I have to ask, what is being revealed about God´s works in the mother here in Guatemala, today? No one is magically going to cure her situation. No one is going to make her house weather tight and provide her with dry cooking wood and enough food until the rain stops. She will continue living the same way for the rest of her life, and probably her children will too. This woman did not sin, she did nothing to deserve her situation in life, and yet, there she is. With no prospects, with no choices.

So yes, I agree, it is the poor who suffer the most. But why is that so? Why do we allow that to be the truth? Why do we sit in our warm homes eating chocolate chip cookies? Why do I have that option, the choice, when others have none? Why is that the reality we live in, and why do we accept it?