Seeing the Beauty in Life

I don’t realize how good I have it. I’m not talking about just today, a Thursday in September, I’m talking about every day of my life so far.

Recently I had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a Christian Brother, and a small group of volunteers from Argentina on a home visit. The Christian Brothers tend to work in education, and when they came to Cochabamba, Bolivia they realized that they couldn’t tackle education without addressing the population of kids who don’t go to school or don’t go frequently because they are working on the streets in the very large outdoor market in Cochabamba.

Why are kids working on the street and not in school? Poverty is the main reason. If mom and/or dad don’t earn enough to feed, clothe and house the kids, the kids need to work. It’s not always that simple. Sometimes kids don’t only work on the streets but also live on the streets and oftentimes the push factors for kids include violence within the family and lack of money to care properly for the kids. My friend explained that some kids fall behind in school because they don’t have the money to buy the books (they have to buy books each year) and they’re too embarrassed to tell the teacher for fear of being reprimanded or looked down upon, so they stop attending school. Each case has its own circumstances, I’m just giving some examples.

After getting to know so many kids who work in the market, the Brothers also get to know their families if possible. We went to visit the family of a set of brothers who both worked. We started out in the market and it took maybe a half hour or a little more to get to the end of the line of the public transportation. When we got out of the car (like a bus, but it’s a minivan with a route), this is the scenery we saw

We walked for about 45 minutes with a drink stop before we reached the house. This included walking up a very steep hill on dirt roads and then descending a mountain-side, also very steep, and through the brush and cacti. My friend explained to us that the kids in the family have to walk all that way every day to go to school and the mom has to walk that in order to bring home any groceries or really anything. Oh! And she has a baby on her back while she does this.

When the six of us arrived, they greeted us with smiles and glasses of a no-name brand soda. There were not seats for everyone, so she put a blanket down for some to sit on. The boys’ little sister showed us her homework, while the two teenagers from Argentina went to play soccer in the dirt with the brothers and a couple of their friends.

The house they live in is rented. Its walls are not extensive enough to cover the whole house, and I can only imagine what it is like at night when the slight wind we feel in the afternoon becomes brisk and stronger. The mom and her husband have been able to buy a plot of land even further out, but it is theirs. They want to build a house but construction materials are especially expensive right now so they have to keep paying rent.

The Brother and his coworker brought seeds to share with the mom because she is taking advantage of the very small plot of land in front of the house (maybe 10 ft. by 50 ft) to plant onions, beans, potatoes, swiss chard and other vegetables for both family consumption and potentially to sell at the market. Currently the mom sells fruits in the market when she can. This requires getting to a fruit drop-off location at 3:30am and camping out a spot on the street in the market, because if she doesn’t get there that early, someone else will have taken the spot and she won’t have a place to sell.

Can I imagine being one of her kids and having to go work in the market that takes more than an hour to get to, and also go to school and do my homework, and get home before dark ideally? Can I imagine what it would be like to be the mother trying to find a way to care for her kids and make sure they go to school, but at the same time struggling to get them food, clothing and school supplies? All this while having to walk up and down a very steep hill/mountain-side with unsteady footing every day (good muscle development, that is for sure). The short and simple answer is “no”, no I cannot even imagine what my daily life would be like.

As I started out saying, I don’t even realize how good I have it. Not only do I have enough to eat, I have extra. I have plenty of clothes and books to read and learn from. I have a roof over my head and it may leak but I don’t get wet. I never had to walk more than 5 minutes to catch the school bus (because I had a free bus that picked me up and brought me back home every day). I may walk a good distance carrying my groceries but a bus is there if I really need to take it, for me walking with a heavy load is a chosen exercise—ha, what a novelty.

All in all, I learned a lot in that one afternoon, and I most enjoyed seeing the joy in the kids’ faces while playing soccer. Kids love to play, no matter where you are. Adults do too, but we’re less likely to admit it and unabashedly show our excitement. Hopefully I can remember them the next time I get stressed or worried about some deadline or task, and remember how beautiful life is in its simplicities.

5 Things I’m Grateful for Today: having a hammer and a screwdriver to unclog the shower drain because I have a shower (that family does not); my health; visits from four family members in August; enjoying the last bit of my favorite cereal that I received in the mail from a dear friend as a surprise birthday gift; my friends who make me laugh and bring such joy to my life.