This little sweetheart is Alicia. She is somewhere between 3 and 4 years old; we don't know for sure because she has no birth certificate, and no one remembers the day she was born. She lives at nearly 12,000 feet with her mom, dad, and 8 brothers and sisters. I visited her house yesterday for the first time because her much older brother found me to ask for some medicine to help his twin sister. The diagnosis was difficult to figure because she has special needs and is mostly non-verbal, and the rest of the family mostly speaks Mam, but I got the idea of what was wrong and hopefully gave them something that will help. I have visited the homes of many, many people who live in poverty. It always bothers me, but I don't always tear up in the moment. It doesn't always keep me up at night. The situation Alicia is growing up in will. It did last night. I laid in my warm bed wondering if she was warm. If she was dry. If she had eaten something after I left. When Jessie was little, I didn't worry too much about those things. We weren't rich. Sometimes I had to give plasma for grocery money, but I had that option, and there WAS always food on our table. I could pay the rent. She was warm and dry. I might have worried about how to pay for day care or how to pay for a doctor if she got sick or how to pay for new shoes every year, but the basics--warm, dry, fed--I could cover that. I can't imagine the agony Alicia's mother, Eulalia, must feel to struggle with even those simple basics. I've never met Eulalia's husband. He is usually working in another town to try to make ends meet. But when you earn $5 a day and have to pay for somewhere to sleep, something to eat, and transportation back home on occasion, that money doesn't go very far. Let me show you why I worry for them.
Their view? It's simply stunning! Americans would pay millions for this piece of property. You can see from Antigua to Mexico from there. Every sunrise and sunset is breath-taking. But it is often below freezing up here. The rain, wind, and hail can be fierce, and their house is made of old roofing laminas with a thatched roof.
This single room serves as both their bedroom and kitchen. They share three beds which are just boards slightly raised off the cold, dirt floor. Each bed has 2 thin blankets. They have also piled all the clothes they own on top in an attempt to keep warm at night.
Eulalia makes a fire on the floor in the middle of the room because keeping a fire going outside with all that wind isn't possible. The thought of her twin 1 year old boys falling into the fire scares me. You have no idea how often it happens around here. Their thatched roof is covered in soot, and it's nearly impossible to breathe in there. I know. I tried.
Their situation is dire. I'm not worried about their kids' college funds here. Warm, dry, fed. That's all I want for this family for right now. I'm doing everything I can to keep them fed, and I am falling far short. I spend $1350 a month bringing food to the 40 families who live up here. I can only do that much because of your generosity, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. Truly. I might not always want to go trucking clear out there (just being honest here), but every time I see them struggle to carry the heavy bags of food home, I am always glad I did. It is always worth the effort. Always. But to my knowledge, most of the other families are going home to sturdy adobe homes with roofs (except one other one). I do know that they all cook on the dirt floor--not a single family has a vented wood stove. I asked. But at least they have a solid structure to sleep in. Adobe is a great insulator. They're a far cry from toasty warm, but they're not nearly as cold as this family who lives inside the equivalent of a tin can. We are making a plan to help this family with a more solid home, more thick blankets, better clothes, and hopefully a vented wood stove. Would you like to help with this project? I have known most of you for years and years now, and you have been unfailingly compassionate and generous, so I already know the answer to the question I just asked. Because of that, I feel pretty confident that I can get started now. I'm smiling even as I type it. You guys are so great! I thank you in advance. And Eulalia, Rufino, Yolanda, Mariano, Dora, Miriam, Maria, Fermin, the twin boys, and little Alicia will also thank you soon. They have no idea how their world is about to change! I'm excited!
