Lord, help me to seek humility.

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the better. The past few days have been for the most part nice and sunny with only a little bit of rain in the afternoon. Yesterday, Candy (one of the new staff here in Kcauri) came to work and was telling us about everything that is going on in Lucre (where she lives). Most of the homes in Lucre were washed away, including her home. I asked her what the government was doing for those left without homes. She said she didn´t see them doing much. Those whose houses are still standing have opened their doors to those with nowhere to go. Candy said these homes are completely packed. Everyone else is living in tents. As she was leaving, I gave her a big bag of clothes to take back with her to Lucre.

Today she came back to work carrying a bag full of choclo. She said everyone was so grateful for the clothes. They had all sent me choclo from their crops to say thank you. I was speechless. How is it that these people, who have lost so much, can give me this? yeah...so I gave them clothes, but it wasn´t like I was going to be lacking anything...I have way more than I need...my day-to-day life will not be greatly changed because I was giving away clothes that I rarely even used...I´m not suffering. I felt my heart break and swell inside of me. I wanted to cry...how could these people think of giving me anything let alone part of their crops that were now mostly washed away. It was very humbling. I feel like an ¨expected¨ response would not be to give away from the little left of one´s possessions...let alone food. I feel safe in saying it would be completely justified to think of oneself, one´s family, and how to survive after an occurrence such as this. I have never met these people...they could have just written it off with a quick, ¨wow, that was nice of that gringa to give us clothes.¨ But they wanted to give me something. Their gratitude moved them to act and in a way they bridged a gap between us. They made a connect instead of leaving blank unknown faces and moving on. At first, I didn´t want to accept it. However, I knew that not accepting might offend them and take away from what they wanted to do. All I could say was, ¨Thank you.¨

Please, God, may I feel so full of gratitude that I am moved to act, to love others as these people have shown me. Life is not about being helped, saying thanks, and then moving on still only concerned about one´s own needs. We are to live as a community, with our actions showing our connectedness to one another. May our livelihood be wrapped up in that of our neighbor.