These past few days reminded me of a book we read in Latin America class with Dr. Burke: A Beauty that Hurts: Life and Death in Guatemala by George Lovell. During class, Dr. Burke asked, "Why is this book called A Beauty that Hurts?" I think the answer applies here to Peru as well...
Like Guatemala, the country is filled with a natural beauty. Just around the city of Huaraz, the Cordillera Blanca mountain range parallels the majesty and grace of the renowned Swiss Alps. Aside from the snowy white mountain tops, the area is laden with serene lakes and exceptional lagoons, like the Querococha Lagoon I visited today. Standing in the middle of a field, staring out into the picturesque landscape, I couldn't believe that amongst such beauty, there exists so much suffering and pain.
As crippled women and hungry children pass me in the streets, I can see it in their expression: sadness, pain, defeat. This is a city where the rich live in luxurious houses enshrouded by pine trees and the poor live in adobe houses with corrugated tin roofs secured with old tires and rocks and generally have no access to electricity and running water. Between these two extremes lies a miniscule population of middle class. Seeds of Hope works with the majority, also known as the poor.
When I think of the "poor" in the United States, they are the ones with minimum, or less than minimum wage pay. They are the ones who need food stamps to feed their families. They are the ones who can only afford second hand items from places like the Salvation Army. However, this poor would be considered rich compared to what the families of Seeds of Hope face. I visited two homes the other day with Gladis, our part-time social worker and I simply don't understand how people are surviving under such conditions. How can the rest of society simply turn a blind eye toward all this poverty?!
The second house we visited was located under a bridge. I know for a fact that on a daily basis tons of Peruvians pass over this bridge and none ever stop to do something about the poor family living below. Four children and one mother live in this one room adobe house--one room to eat, to sleep, to wash, to do everything. What about the father you ask? He left the family for another woman, for another family. He left. HE LEFT! How can a father simply leave four children to nothing, to hunger? The mother can only wash clothes for a living, making 3 soles a day. That equates to a little over 1 US dollar. Yes, that's about 1 US dollar for a family of 5 people!! To give you an idea, 3 soles is how much two bottles of drinking water costs. On top of that, there is a 1 meter tall wall along the bank of the water and now the government wants to increase the height. If they go through with this plan, the adobe house will be completely destroyed. Then where will the family live? (Well, the government surely doesn’t care!)
It is absolutely outrageous and despicable how little people can care!! Maybe I’ve simply lived in my own world, but I really expected more from humanity. No child should be brought up under these conditions, absolutely none! It’s reassuring to know that there are some people, like the staff of Seeds of Hope, that aim to do whatever they can, but with limited funds, you can only go so far. Why? Why isn’t the government helping its people? Why? Why aren’t the rich donating an unnoticeable part of their wealth to create a noticeable difference in some else's life? WHY?!
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