Hay una stripper!!!!

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Yesterday I left off at Los Martincitos and the dreaded crafts table...on Tuesdays and Thursdays the center is closed and we spend the day driving around the sand roads of Villa El Salvador in the CCS van paying home visits to the abuelos. The visiting caravan consists of me, two other volunteers, Sister Jackie, and the driver Mario. There are many reasons for these visits. On the surface, it seems like we are just checking in and making sure they are doing ok (eating, taking their medicine, etc.), providing them with a little bit of company or a big laugh (see below), and maybe (like today) dropping off food. But as I would soon find out, the reasons for these visits are much larger than caring for their immediate needs.

I was definitely unprepared for the intensity of these home visits. Most of these people are extremely poor, and most of the homes have dirt floors; huge, gaping holes in the roof; broken windows and doors; and very minimal furnishings--a bed, maybe a few chairs. Plus, many of these people have migrated from the Andes region where they lived with their animals, so a lot of the houses have ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, etc. running around inside simply because this is how these people prefer to live.

But much more difficult to take in than the abject poverty, are the family situations of these abuelos. As I said yesterday, these are people who have been (are being) abandoned, neglected, or abused by their families. (I am very tempted to include some of their stories here, just to give you an idea of the gravity of many of their situations, but I feel like it would be a violation of their trust to publically write about their situations--but trust me, they are incredibly intense and in many cases dire.) When we visit, they are so happy to see us and invite us inside to chat. But once there, it becomes all too obvious just how sad they are and how much pain many of them are in and sometimes they cry and don´t want us to leave...it really is heartbreaking.

If you think too much about it, it can really get you down. And if you continue to think about it, as I proceeded to do the first time I did the visits on Tuesday, you may even start to feel like you have no right to intrude on these people just because you decided to be an international volunteer. I mean it is one thing to be serving them at the center where they have a choice on whether to come or not; but it is quite another to be barging into their house with a bag of rice that they need. In other words, it just felt totally wrong to me that these people had to invite me into their house, into their very personal world and space and problems, just because I signed on and paid to be a part of the organization that they depend on for their survival. I had a really hard time with it.

But as was patiently explained to me by the CCS people and the people in charge of Los Martincitos, the home visits are part of a much larger plan. Or in other words, as Eliza would say, ¨Kim, it´s not about you.¨ And really, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. These visits, in addition to providing for the abuelos immediate needs, are also about making a much larger statement to the community--and that statement is THESE PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT. The whole community stops and stares when the huge CCS van barrells down the dirt roads filled with a bunch of Westerners hauling food into people´s houses. It is quite a sight--I mean you can´t miss us! This very visible display of effort to visit the abuelos, one of the most discriminated populations in this community, is meant to show the families who neglect and abuse them that these are people who deserve to be treated with care and respect. And apparently, it is often effective. So needless to say, after this was all explained to me, I got over myself, learned a big lesson about the world not revolving around Kim C. (I know, shocking) and got back to work.

Sheesh, who thinks I need to lighten up a little--both in life and in the blog? Agreed. I blame this pensiveness on the forced sobriety I´ve had to endure since I´ve arrived here. So I´ll leave you with one funny story, ie. the ¨big laugh¨ I promised above. This morning, we arrived at this one house where an abuelo couple live and we knock knock knock on their door but no one answers. So we assume they are not at home and get back in the van to go to another house. As we are pulling away, our driver Mario starts screaming ¨HAY UNA STRIPPER!! HAY UNA STRIPPER!!¨ (For those that are linguistically challenged, this translates to ¨There is a stripper!!!¨) And sure enough, the little old lady had walked out of the house wearing a skirt but only a bra on top and was waving at us with a huge smile to come back. So we came back and brought her inside to put a shirt on, but when she saw how embarrassed Mario was (he was covering his eyes), the little old stripper came up to the van and tried to give him a kiss while he kept on screaming. So as you can see the home visits can be as much fun as they are sad.

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