This evening I was watering our new flowers that Javier, our gardener, planted in the flower boxes on our porch when I saw something that made me laugh and be angry at once. I saw a man painting a house a couple streets down from us. He was not painting in a way that I have ever seen before. He was being hung by a rope from the rooftop and the bucket of paint was hung by another rope. He's sitting on a board - it's quite the apparatus! (Click on the photo for a fullscreen look and then click the "Back" button to return to this text.) Ingenious? Dangerous? Or probably both! It did not seem like he was efficiently getting his work done and this looked like an overly labour intensive way of painting. There is such a large portion of the population here that is poor that it is not hard to find cheap labour that is willing to do the worst of jobs for next to nothing of a wage. My Christian compassion towards the poorest of people compels me to call this labour market among the poor "exploitation". There are many people here that will drum up work that may seem to us north of the border to be benign. For example, most every commercial parking lot has people that have whistles that will help you back out of your parking stall. All that is expected is maybe 2 or 3 pesos. Some people give it, many others do not. I usually give a little more than the average but what I do next shocks them every time. As I give the money I say, "Dios te bendiga." (God bless you). Their response is always a smile accompanied by words like "Igualmente" (to you as well), "Muy amable." (You are very kind.), or "Gracias: gloria a Dios." (Thank-you: glory to God). Jesus had a special heart for those who were society's poorest and it has been primarily among the poor that He did His greatest works. Our prayer is that we will be able to see God do a great work here among the poor, both physically and spiritually. Pray that we will be able to begin a church plant here soon and that we would see our first converts to the Saviour soon.
1 comment:
Hola, amigo y amigas,
Como esta? And there my Spanish hits a wall (except for the fragments like "Me llamo Melissa").
I haven't visited your blog before, but am spending too much time on it today! Thanks so much for taking the time to do it; it's interesting and gives us insight into what's happening in between the official letters.
I didn't know you were into economics. Despite being somewhat economically illiterate, I am a huge supporter of the Acton Institute. I am intrigued by the SmallDeadAnimals blog, too. Great name.
Loved the photo of the new school uniform. Hummingbirds is an apt mascot!
Hope you're all doing well. Know that we love and pray for you here at the office!
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