Jesus, Come Quickly!

 

Beautiful Santa Barbara, Huehuetenango

Santa Barbara is Huehuetenango's poorest municipality, made up entirely of Mam-speaking indigenous people who have been abused and abandoned by a government not truly their own. It is also one of Huehue's most violent areas, which isn't hard to believe since crime and poverty generally go hand in hand.   These facts are usually the last thing on my mind when I'm working out there; I rarely feel unsafe.  However, there are days like today when reality comes knocking and reminds me that even though it is stunningly beautiful, it is a dangerous area. I'm going to tell you what I learned today for two reasons:  so you get a better feel for what it's like to live here in rural Huehue and so that you can pray more knowledgeably.  Jesus is the only One who can make a lasting change here.

Today I was talking to my assistant, Marina, about one of the ladies in the LI program who we'll call Glendi for privacy's sake. Glendi and her children need some significant assistance with their housing, but before I do anything about that, I needed to be sure of her marital situation. I knew her husband had left her years ago for another woman and had heard sketchy details of Glendi's revenge for this act, but I didn't know the whole truth.  I had also heard rumors that the ex-husband was back in the picture.  Marina was pretty emphatic that he was not.  I was curious about why she was SO emphatic about it, so she told me the rest of the story.  Glendi was so angry with the woman her ex-husband had run off with that she enlisted the help of her nieces to hold this woman down while she violated her with a large stick.  The internal damage was so extensive that she died in agony the next day. The only witness was the victim's own mother who happens to be mute. The story came out because the victim's brother could decipher his mother's gestures and grunts.  But since there were no witnesses to the crime who could testify, and because it takes money that people don't have in order to prosecute someone here, Glendi got away with murder.  Because Glendi's children are all malnourished and I don't want to punish them for their parent's choices, I have allowed Glendi to remain in the program.  Well, that and the fact that I don't want to anger her!  She doesn't know that I even know her story.

Right after hearing that little tidbit, I interviewed two new ladies for the program.  One is married and has 4 young children, but her husband had been in jail for the past two years, and no one seems to have any idea when he'll get out.  He got into a drunken brawl and plucked another man's eye out with his bare hands.  

The other woman I interviewed--we'll call her Cindi--had recently lost her father.  He was working in a coffee plantation and saw a woman get bitten by a snake.  The plantations are full of them...corals, to be specific.  And they're venomous.  So this man went running to the boss to ask for help.  Not wanting to spend any money or waste any time on a "worthless indigenous woman," the boss pulled out a gun and shot him point blank in the chest.  The nearest medical clinic was a three hour walk from the plantation.  He bled out on the way.  (The boss's sons were able to temporarily hide their dad until he could escape, but fortunately he was found and is now in jail.) Two weeks after having lost her father, Cindi's husband beat her ruthlessly--bad enough that she was laid up in the bed and couldn't care for her two kids, both under age 2.  Her brothers came to visit, found her in that condition, and brought her back home to live with her newly widowed mother.  Her husband has shown no remorse. In fact, he has stated that he will continue to beat her if she returns, so she'll remain with her mother.  

As appalling as these stories are, they really aren't all that uncommon here.  In fact, I can't think of a single woman in LI who doesn't have a horrible story in her past.  Sometimes I feel very unequipped to help them deal with these things.  The best I can do is listen, give them a hug, and try to help them out of their current difficulties.  We all covet your prayers.  We have made an awful mess of our world, haven't we?  Come quickly, Jesus!