The 4th Month

About four months ago I arrived at the Lima international airport in Perú and hopped a plane to the border region of Tacna (the city, mainly).

The first two months crawled by, and learning about my community-mates and their backgrounds gave me an exciting outlook on the uncharted year to come. Admittedly, I was unsure of what `community´ meant from the outset. And I have only begun to understand it now. It is for the most part organically generated amongst all members involved in our communal living. This ultimately requires deliberate consideration on the part of each individual. It implicates us each day, and it generates a good space in which we can grow and share.

After about five-or-so weeks into my sojourn here in Tacna, I had an accident getting off of a bus on my way to the Habitat (for Humanity) community from the city center. I couldn´t walk because my ankle was very unstable -- apparently it warranted a cast. Luckily, a nice man carried me in his wheelbarrow to the nearest medical "posta".

I was able to receive medical treatment not because of my modes of insurance; my host-dad´s friend is a practicing "traumatólogo" nearby in the city. He casted me without compensation for his work, and also removed the cast, evaluating my injury to make sure that it had healed sufficiently. He did this for his friend. I had also eaten with him at a "parrillada" in my host-family´s house, where he accompanied me in singing `Cielito Lindo´.

Removing the cast was a mental liberation as much as a physical one. I had but barely started to read `Cien años de soledad´ which, also forced me to laugh at my situation a bit empathetically. I also grew closer to my community-mates because their visits and help also served to unencumber me in many ways. I was also forced to trust them, allow them to do things for me, and to be unable at times to express my gratitude satisfactorily. I grew much closer to my host family too, and they have shown me an inspiring amount of generosity, love and commitment. I am still learning from their example as I reflect on it daily.

For our third month here in Perú we moved to the coast. I, along with two other male volunteers, moved to Puerto Grau / Morro Sama -- a joint town municipality. We mainly participated as delegates for the local Jesuit high school, in order to facilite as leaders some small groups (derived from 52, 14-year-old young men). We were responsible for them for four weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This task in itself was draining.

What is more, the fact that we worked 6 days a week doing manual labor from morning until sunset meant that I would really have to burden my ankle beyond the doctor´s recommendations (so what.) Luckily I was able to support the work after about a week of walking on my ankle for the first time since I was off the crutches. I believe it proved to be a rehabilitation in itself!

The scenery, the landscape that is the coastal desert mountain and the ceaseless Pacific ocean provides a great canvas below the star we call `Sun´. It is a vast space to think about other things and problems, and too great of a space for any of these thoughts to echo. Things tend to disappear and slip away. It was very healthy in this regard.  

The poverty of the area needs no great detail, nor does the incredulous resiliency and generosity of its "lugareños". Everyone knows the dynamic of poverty and humanity is as stark and obvious as the swallowing blackness of space contrasted against the unbelievable amount of light from our stars.

I believe I have come to understand more and more with more intimate experiences such as these that, the eradication of poverty implicates us all, that it could take such little effort if everyone would love their neighbor more -- if people saw and believed each other to be equals in matters human. Maybe sometimes we don´t choose to ask who our neighbors are.

It was recently MLK Day in the U.S. What an important hero for us all. He expresses in his publication `Strength to Love´the sentiments of Abe Lincoln. I believe the quoted words ring something like this, "By giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom for the free: honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve."