final part of Thea’s message
Hi Mynglers,
after part 1 and part2, finally we have the last part of Thea’s story.
“I was worried and told this story to many different people. Most of the reactions had a negative tone. The story is not true, he fooled you, everything was just acting and so on. I can’t really believe that. Did I let him trick me like that? But one person gave the following reaction: Can’t you ask him if he wants to become self employed and get him to earn money by asking a large group of people that you know if they would let him clean their shoes.That seemed a great idea. Unfortunately, because of all the negative reactions I hadn’t come up with that idea before that day. Besides, I couldn’t even present the idea to him because I didn’t see him again.
One monday around lunchtime I went to the park and heard somebody say “hola”. It was Alex.With his shoe cleaning set he is there for the first time in five weeks and just keeps walking through without talking to me. What to think about that? Am I that naive? I realize that I’m influenced by all the negative reactions. With Alex, I had and still have the feeling that he has more potential. Or does corruptions and lying have such deep roots in this culture that the children learn it from the beginning on? Which lesson am I learning right now? All kinds of questions are going through my head.
If the story is true, what can I do? Giving money is not an option because he would have to give it to ‘the other person’. And when I leave in 6 weeks, what happens then? Nobody will take over this. There are strong recommendations not to give money to the children anyways. If he is really homeless then there is a shelter where he can sleep and eat. Only if he ends up with the group that also sniffs glue and drinks alcohol it will be the beginning of the end.This picture is in my head.
What if the story was not true and he simply has a home where he stays? Is this the way to get the tourists sympathy and do some really open their wallets? Apart from the fact that I’ve then probably been fooled for the last couple of weeks, how in the future will I be able to distinguish whats true and what’s not? What shall I do with this information?I know that I can’t carry all the misery of this world on my shoulders and that I can’t have the illusion that I will find a solution during these 3 months.
Also, I don’t want to become cynical or distrustful and every human being, no matter how big or small,I want to keep seeing as an individual with its own story and background. Even in The Netherlands and wherever in the world you meet people that take it a little easier with telling the truth.Its just that here it goes together with poverty and misery and this has now turned into a familiar face for me: Alex.
I see really young children, sometimes 4 years old, selling their goods as if they were grown up’s. With the most beautiful eyes, their charm and smart comments they try to make some profit. And then always their main motivation of hunger comes around the corner. How incredibly close it all gets to me at these moments and how inappropriate my reactions feel at these moments!
It looks like I will be coming home with more questions than I had when I came here!!
Greetings from Guatemala”
Aenn
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January 26th, 2010 at 9:55 am
‘IT LOOKS LIKE I WILL BE COMING HOME WITH MORE QUESTIONS THAN I HAD WHEN I CAME HERE.”
Thea, it doesn’t only look like but YOU ARE THERE. For all you know, the more you dig, the more you find. Alex is just a sample, a picture, a representative of so many poverty-stricken countries around the world. When you went there, your main purpose was to help the urban poor reach even the first ladder of education. Maybe you didn’t realize that alongside illiteracy are bulks of sad and uncontrolled happenings. I believe that these social evils I mentioned in my first comment are not graciously done but they are forced to be done due to the great disparities of life.
No young individual wants to lie nor trick another if there are no forcible reasons to compel him. And it’s so sad and frustrating that young people are nurtured to such situation due to mere physical survival.
If the stories of Alex you got from the people around are 99% negative, do you still see the 1% positive? Do you believe that this remaining 1% is as powerful as the 99%? It’s a fact that even the worst person you could imagine still has a hidden potential and goodness that needs to be appreciated and boosted in order to shine. And I am glad that you saw that in Alex.
Thea, your short stay there, I am sure, will somehow leave a ray of hope to the young minds you are with now.
Good luck and keep it up. God bless you.
Klara
February 1st, 2010 at 11:28 am
Hi Thea, I am sure most of us have experienced this sort of helpless feeling one time or the other. Horrible things that happen to people all over the world, in every country regardless of rich or poor is just heart renching. Most of the time we just don’t seem to have any answers but the important thing is that we never become cynical and hard hearted. We can never underestimate the power of ONE. As myngler let us all vouch to the motto of EACH ONE REACH ONE!
Natasha