teach us to be one

Cusco sometimes seems like a place of extremes...or maybe extremes isn´t the word. Alot here is centered around tourism. If you walk around the Plaza de Armas at night you can plan on being bombarded by fliers for massage parlors, fancy shmancy restaurants, discotecas, and bars. Then there are also those who stay out until late vending anything from arroz con leche to crocheted Michael Jackson finger puppets. Even still, some sit out in the cold Cusco night with their hands held together and extended to anyone who might stop to give them some money. Weaving through it all every night are tourists...usually on their way to a club.

A while ago, Meghan and I began discussing the idea of walking around the plaza with hot tea and bread in hopes of offering some warmth and a sense of connectedness to what many times seems like Cusco´s cold and chaotic nights. On a Friday about a month ago at around 8:30pm Meghan and I filled up two thermoses with Canela y Clavo Tea and headed toward the plaza with a bag of 20 pieces of bread. This past Friday we were joined by four friends and with four thermoses and 50 pieces of bread, we walked around Cusco´s lively streets.

Most likely, tea and some bread on a Friday night will not change anyone´s circumstances in the grand scheme of things. But it is a step...an action towards...recognizing our brothers and sisters? Or at least it is an attempt at that.

As I walk down dusty roads or
busy concrete boulevards
help me God to take the time to see in the eyes of the other,
to recognize the other, in order to respect.

As I encounter many peoples, many races,
help me to appreciate the hand of the other,
to recognize those hands that create and build, in order to work together.

As my path calls me to various places,
help me to learn to walk together with others on paths that lead to peace,
recognizing that by walking with others, in working together,
we learn to recognize ourself in the other,
to recognize and appreciate our differences.

And begin to recognize what love is about.

-Jennifer Jag Jivan in Pakistan