A trip back to the shanty towns...

Yesterday I spent the day in San Juan where the poorest of the poor live. We traveled to the clinics, the schools, and the rehabilitation center. I went with a new friend that I met on Sunday. It's kind of a strange story of how we got connected:

A friend of mine from my freshmen year of college sent me an email a couple months ago when he saw that I was living in Peru. He told me his sister had a friend that was traveling in South America and would be making her way to Lima and that I should meet up with her and show her around. So after a few emails back in February, I kind of forgot about her until last week when another email populated in my inbox.

We decided to meet and grab some ice cream. We ended up finding out that we had quite a bit in common. She told me some interesting stories about how she had lived in East Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, Germany, and for the last 4 months traveling all around South America.

She was hoping to find some work doing something internationally in the health field. So, I immediately thought of the work that the CLM is doing in San Juan. In the past, she said, that she had worked with organizations that had ideological agendas that were hard for her to reconcile, even despite the good work that they were doing.

So I made a few phone calls and we arranged a trip with a Fraterna (a woman that takes a vow of celibacy and obedience and lives in a community of women) to go with us. She turned out to be one of the sweetest women I have every met. From time-to-time you come across people that just glow of joy and happiness, this was one of those women. Our faces hurt at the end of the day because of how much smiling and laughing we had done!

Anyway, so we spent the day with the poorest of the poor. We stopped in at some daycare centers and schools and played with the kids and had a ball. They teased me that I was a rock star because the kids loved me so much. I should have brought my camera, but I forgot.

We went around and saw all the projects that the CLM is doing, everything from preventative health care, to providing psychological care for families, to rehabilitation, to teaching them how to provide for themselves and learn new skills. With all of these projects, there’s a very strong sense of taking care of the entire person, a focus on the dignity and worth of each human life, from conception until natural death.

My new friend Alexis, I think, was quite impressed with how authentic this work was, without concern about ideology, or even about religion. Of course, there are icons, and we uphold the teaching of the Catholic Church, but we treat without question.

There were points on our trip where even I was overwhelmed by the incredible love and concern for people that the volunteers had, and how authentic and complete the spirituality driving the projects were, even though I had been there before.

At the end of the day, I came back to my room physically and emotionally exhausted. It’s amazing how seeing so much poverty can be overwhelming, but at the same time, so much hope for the good and love that is being sown.

The Shanty Towns

So I got my first look at what real poverty is today. The people that live in paloma have no where else to live. They have built their homes on mounds of sand, have basically no education, little food, and no health care. These are not lazy people, in fact, they are extremely hard working and creative with their work. They are very good handicraftsmen!





Water is a huge problem here. They actually don't ever get rain. Don't believe me? Look at the expensive equipment that was donated that they leave outside. There's no threat of rain. They will even leave stacks of paper outside!



I was also able to visit the CLM's clinics. They were incredibly impressive. Unlike in the US, they treat the entire person. All doctors and nurses must be trained to understand the human person as God sees them. What this means is that they don't just treat symptoms, but they treat the person, nurture their soul, and help them to see themself in the big picture of God's creation.

One of the most impactful places in the clinic was the pregnancy crises center. While Peru is a very Catholic country, there are so many people that have no Catholic formation. There just aren't enough workers in the field here to teach and form them. As a result, there's a good of women that get pregnant out of wedlock, and because they're poor they can't afford to have medical care. In response, the CLM set up this pregnancy center.

The pregnancy center teaches the mother at a very early stage about the sanctity of life, explains what's going on, and helps them to understand what an amazing gift this is. Legally, they must inform the women of all their options, and while abortion is illegal here, it is not very difficult to find a private doctor who will perform one illegally. Some women even come to the clinic after a private doctor has recommended an abortion. I'll share one story that I heard today about such an instance:

A woman two years ago went to the state hospital after discovering her pregnancy. She was examined and informed that her baby would not survive birth and encouraged her to abort the child. She was very uncertain as to what to do and by a recommendation from a friend, came to the CLM clinic. They took her in, provided a medical exam, and confirmed that the child would have a complicated birth, but also lovingly taught the mother about the beauty of every life, even a life they may not survive long.

After 7 months, the mother decided to have the child. She had a daughter that survived 3 days, was baptised and named Guadelupe. She asked the doctor and the nurse to be the God-parents and absolutey fell in love with her little girl. Even though the child only lived for 3 days, she praised God for the opportunity to have this child and 2 years later explained that if she had the abortion and later discovered all she knows now, she would have never been able to live with herself. She's now a huge advocate of the clinic!

Other services provided by the clinic is a daycare facility. The purpose is twofold. First, to provide the children with early Catechesis. Second, to give the parents a safe and productive place to leave their children to attend work. I asked if the children begin exclipsing their parents knoweldge, and sure enough they do, but the CLM also provides classes for parents so they can support their children during their development.

Finally, the clinic also provides psychological support for children and their parents. This is a place where parents can bring their children (or vis versa) and have sessions with a psychologist to find out why a child is acting up. They also teach children how to appropriate communicate and express themselves, again with the understanding of what the human person is in God's Creation.

The children I met were extremely well behaved and happy. It was amazing as to how simple this operation was, yet creative and effective! My first thought was: Boy, we could use this in the United States!!

Day 3

Which one of these families is more successful? The one with 3 stories...

You can tell how successful a family is based on how many stories the house has. In this neighborhood, a house is built with one story, and as time goes on and the family acquires more money, they build up.

The shanty town that I may be working at on Saturday's. The people that live here essentially have built their community on sand. The poorer you are, the higher up the mountain you live. The CLM build stairs for them so they could walk up more easily. Also, the CLM provides an amazing array of services to take care of these people. I will document more about these services later.

I hope I don't have to drive in this place. This is not an accident, it's a normal "merge." Shortly after I took this picture, we zoomed by these cars and headed straight.