I always wonder about days that seem to have more than their fair share of hardships. Do bad things really come packaged together by the cosmos? Or is it just our awareness that changes, our ear suddenly tuned to the negative and tragic.
Yesterday--the last day of our groups’ visit--a camera got stolen out of a girl’s lap as she rode in a van, window open, enjoying the view. Then Patrick had his lunch stolen from the seat of the car. A few hours later, police arrived at the school to arrest a construction worker who’d been working on the roof at CONASPEH for 2 weeks because he had been caught stealing building materials. And then, when the day seemed destined to be cursed, we got news that one of the children of the school had been hit by a car and killed on his way to school that morning.
The news came as a sobering blow to everyone at the school. Stolen cameras, sandwiches and concrete blocks are drops in the ocean to a stolen life.
In a country where people survive so many agents of death such as disease, starvation, and political upheavals, accidental death feels all the more unfair. This 7 year-old child had survived childbirth, poverty, hunger, childhood illnesses without access to healthcare, and had on top of it all started an education. The sum total of such accomplishments is miraculous. And for all to be lost in a screech of tires seems such an obscene waste.
So pray with us for this child's family, for the unfortunate driver of the car, for the accidents and tragedies that happen all over the world, robbing us of the well of possibility that is contained in one life.
No comments:
Post a Comment