Email: Katie Rains

Hello All,

I hope this note finds you all doing well in your own parts of the world. I wanted to bring together a few of my blogs in one coherent thought because they all address poverty and responses to poverty here in Peru.

In December, I was walking around the commercial neighborhood near the office of the Red (Network) looking for the beauty supply shop, as I was out of face wash. I ended up on the wrong block somehow and before I realized it I was walking the wrong direction. I had walked past a young girl, maybe 15 or 16 years old, with a baby. She wasn’t selling anything; she just had a cup out. I lowered my eyes and walked past her.

I have gotten somewhat used to the people on the busses selling chocolate and people shoving things in my face at busy intersections trying to get me to buy something. There really is a sense of selling your wares here (we call it “upselling” in the States), even to the extent of bus cobradores and taxi drivers (I won’t even be going to the bus stop, and gentlemen will be trying to convince me to get on their bus, or a cab driver will stop in front of me as I am crossing the street trying to convince me to use his cab services). Anyway, this girl was different.

I soon realized that I needed to turn around and go the other way, and that I would have to walk past her again. We were warned in training not to feel like we had to give or buy things, that it was probably better if we didn’t. I just sort of held my breath, but couldn’t help but look at her and her baby. I didn’t really want to give her money, but I did want to know her name, and her baby’s name and how old it was. I was lost in these thoughts as I ran into the man in front of me as he stopped to dig for some change in his pocket. He went back and gave it to her. I kept walking.

I found my store, bought my facial cleanser, and began my trek home. Surprisingly, I ran into another man as he reached into his pocket to dig for some change, and I watched as he walked back and gave it to a woman sitting with some candy on the street.

It really got me thinking because even at home, when I go to Seattle, I see the same people sitting on the street with cups or candy and I walk past them in the same way. I wonder who they are and how they came to be where they are, but I never do anything. I think I might be too scared to. I realized how apathetic I am at times. And that is something I know I am highly critical of U.S. society for—my generation especially.

It also made me think of the men, who though they passed the girl with the baby and the woman in the street, went back with change. This is what gives me hope. I don’t know if the answer is in the change we can spare, or if it is taking the time to sit and ask a name and trying to identify with the other person. But the thought alone gives me hope.

How can we ever change what is wrong with our society, with ourselves, if we can never admit what needs to change? I took this thought a little further during my two weeks of Christmas vacation.

On New Year’s Eve I was in Cusco, Peru, walking back to my hostel with a new-found friend. We walked through the Plaza de Armas and then to another side plaza, where there was an overhang. Underneath were lines of people out of the rain sleeping next to one another. As we started to walk past, my friend said, “wait,” as he put his hand in his pocket. One by one, he gave every person there a 50-centimo piece (about the equivalent of 15 cents). I watched in silent amazement. When he finished, I gave him a hug.

He backed away and said, “I am not a saint or anything. I see people begging in the streets, and I never give them money. But this, these people, this is real. They wouldn’t be sleeping here if they had somewhere else to go. And it’s not much, my tips from tonight (he worked as a bartender in the hostel where we were staying), but they can buy a piece of fruit with that.

I stayed silent and didn’t explain my own struggle with the idea of giving.

Then, we were in Arequipa looking for a place to eat dinner. Leslie and I were entering the Plaza de Armas and passed a homeless woman with a cane. We stopped at the first host (all of the restaurants are on the second floor and have balconies overlooking the most beautiful plaza I have seen in Peru, and so they have their hosts on the street level to entice customers upstairs) and he was showing us their menu when there was a crashing noise behind us. The woman had fallen over, and without a second thought our host said excuse me and ran over to help her up. The host makes his commission for bringing people upstairs, so we waited for him and followed him upstairs.

So, while we sat eating I looked over at the table next to us where a group of four was eating. Three white, 30-somethings, and one Peruvian girl about 8 bent over a salad. The interchange between them was quite odd, so I pointed it out to Leslie. She told me that was the girl who had been selling candy in the street. I hadn’t even seen her.

The people at the table must have given her some leftover food. She sat uncomfortably eating every last morsel on the plate. When she was done, she stood up and said thank you. The woman at the table reached in a bag and pulled out some pants, made sure they would fit her, and gave them to her without a second thought.

My struggle has been with just giving someone money. Does that really help them? Today, yes. Tomorrow, no. I have always held the belief that you don’t give away fish, you teach a man to fish. Now I think that is such a pompous way to look at poverty. I still do believe that the principles of earning and working need to be instilled, but at the same time we need to help.

So, what is the answer? Giving someone money, food, clothing today, or holding out and helping for the long-term, where they are able to get those things to themselves. It was recently proposed to me that maybe both answers are correct, but to two different questions. How can we help people today? and How can we help people for the future?

I like this idea.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and that your new years are starting out great.

Please keep me in your thoughts or prayers and those that I work with as well. Oh! And I have good news, I am only $1,000.00 shy of my $10,000 commitment for this year. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this year a reality for me.

Peace,

Katie