Lice, Ticks, and Ants.
As usual, it has been two weeks since my last blog update. To start, I will give the inter-world a rundown of the major events in my life since I was last here.
Firstly, my husband and I successfully acquired (and--thank goodness--very quickly de-quired) head lice for the first time in our lives. We also, for the first time ever, went on a intense and extensive tick-hunt, after finding no less than 25 of the little suckers (pun intended) hanging out in our bedroom all in one evening (the actually number of ticks is significantly higher if you include the days proceeding and following the tick-hunt night). Of course, our new tick roommates are nothing in number compared to the ants that have decided to infest our house in the last couple of weeks. To top it all off, I ended this two week period by losing our fancy-dancey purple smartphone somewhere in the streets/buses of Mazatlan.
Also, I have a cold.
Am I complaining? Yes.
Why?
This week I visited the city garbage dump, where the moms of our Roots & Wings kids are 'employed.' I have been to Mazatlan's dump once earlier, before we started working with Roots & Wings. This time it was different to see the place, recognising faces and having a better understanding of the daily lives of our kids' moms.
These women, about my age or often younger, after dropping their kids off at R&W hike halfway up a small mountain every day, and literally dig through the city's garbage with their bare hands. They search for recyclables, or anything that will fetch a price, so they can buy food, water, and diapers. This is what they know, what they live, the norm. As I stood on a heap of garbage and watched them interacting, I realised that this is their locale, their "turf," so to speak. I felt ignorant, awkward, pretentious... spoiled.
Head lice suddenly didn't seem so bad.
I am blessed beyond what I can understand. Sometimes it's just too easy to see myself as any one of our moms on a given day; desperate for love and affirmation, broken and calloused, or confused and hurting. What makes me different from these women? A superior moral character? An inherit ability to make better life choices? Am I just plain old smarter? Maybe I'm simply more ambitious, or have better self-confidence?
I was not born into a family where abuse ran rampant, and genuine love was hard to come by. I did not ever feel the need to substitute healthy familial love with debilitating, abusive attention. I did not have to drop out of school to try and raise a baby by myself at the age of 15. I have never had to skip a meal because I could not afford to feed both me and my daughter. I have never known what it is like to pick through someone else's rain-soaked piles of garbage just to make a 'living.'
Because when I strip myself of my upbringing, my socio-economic status, my education -- none of which, by the way, I even had a choice in -- I can see myself in the dump, up to my elbows in garbage.
It's not a simple issue, not even as simple as I'm making it now.
Yes, these women have made, and sometimes continue to make terrible life choices. Sometimes I really cannot comprehend why they do the things they do. But then I wonder, all things equal and all privilege aside, would I do any differently? I have been taught right and wrong. I have been loved and cared for since the day I was born. I have been given a wonderful education. And most importantly, I have been taught about Jesus the Christ, and how he can change my life. I think when it comes down to the bare bones, these are the only things that make me any different from these women.
I don't know why I have been so blessed, but I am extremely grateful. The events of the last two weeks seem hardly worth thinking about in light of how much I have to be thankful for. I only pray that now I can use what I have been given to try and help make a difference for those people in the world who have not been given the head-start I have.
Firstly, my husband and I successfully acquired (and--thank goodness--very quickly de-quired) head lice for the first time in our lives. We also, for the first time ever, went on a intense and extensive tick-hunt, after finding no less than 25 of the little suckers (pun intended) hanging out in our bedroom all in one evening (the actually number of ticks is significantly higher if you include the days proceeding and following the tick-hunt night). Of course, our new tick roommates are nothing in number compared to the ants that have decided to infest our house in the last couple of weeks. To top it all off, I ended this two week period by losing our fancy-dancey purple smartphone somewhere in the streets/buses of Mazatlan.
Also, I have a cold.
Am I complaining? Yes.
Why?
This week I visited the city garbage dump, where the moms of our Roots & Wings kids are 'employed.' I have been to Mazatlan's dump once earlier, before we started working with Roots & Wings. This time it was different to see the place, recognising faces and having a better understanding of the daily lives of our kids' moms.
These women, about my age or often younger, after dropping their kids off at R&W hike halfway up a small mountain every day, and literally dig through the city's garbage with their bare hands. They search for recyclables, or anything that will fetch a price, so they can buy food, water, and diapers. This is what they know, what they live, the norm. As I stood on a heap of garbage and watched them interacting, I realised that this is their locale, their "turf," so to speak. I felt ignorant, awkward, pretentious... spoiled.
Head lice suddenly didn't seem so bad.
I am blessed beyond what I can understand. Sometimes it's just too easy to see myself as any one of our moms on a given day; desperate for love and affirmation, broken and calloused, or confused and hurting. What makes me different from these women? A superior moral character? An inherit ability to make better life choices? Am I just plain old smarter? Maybe I'm simply more ambitious, or have better self-confidence?
I was not born into a family where abuse ran rampant, and genuine love was hard to come by. I did not ever feel the need to substitute healthy familial love with debilitating, abusive attention. I did not have to drop out of school to try and raise a baby by myself at the age of 15. I have never had to skip a meal because I could not afford to feed both me and my daughter. I have never known what it is like to pick through someone else's rain-soaked piles of garbage just to make a 'living.'
Because when I strip myself of my upbringing, my socio-economic status, my education -- none of which, by the way, I even had a choice in -- I can see myself in the dump, up to my elbows in garbage.
It's not a simple issue, not even as simple as I'm making it now.
Yes, these women have made, and sometimes continue to make terrible life choices. Sometimes I really cannot comprehend why they do the things they do. But then I wonder, all things equal and all privilege aside, would I do any differently? I have been taught right and wrong. I have been loved and cared for since the day I was born. I have been given a wonderful education. And most importantly, I have been taught about Jesus the Christ, and how he can change my life. I think when it comes down to the bare bones, these are the only things that make me any different from these women.
I don't know why I have been so blessed, but I am extremely grateful. The events of the last two weeks seem hardly worth thinking about in light of how much I have to be thankful for. I only pray that now I can use what I have been given to try and help make a difference for those people in the world who have not been given the head-start I have.
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| Picture jacked from the Roots & Wings Facebook page. Stealing pictures is a side-effect of losing a smartphone, but they have way better pics anyway. Check out the FB page for a bunch more of our mamas by clicking here! |
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