Have you ever been attacked by a rat? A couple weeks ago, my answer would have been no as well. It was a cold night, there were about fifty sleeping bags in a small room, but it was more like fifty cocoons on top of each other. It was late at night, we were supposed to be sleeping, but of course, we weren't. Suddenly, the only thing I saw in front of me was the shadow of something round with a long tail jumping up and down on top of a bag, I thought I was already dreaming of something weird. It started running. It was right behind our sleeping bags. Fifty cocoons trying to escape through the same single door. Shouting. Running. Caos.
The last week of July I went to Huaraz, I was doing a religious mission. It was a lot different than what I expected... no bathroom, no cars, no hot food, no internet, no signal. The conditions we had were a little extreme in my opinion. But this opinion quickly changed throughout the week. The day after the rat attack, I was walking around the house we were staying at, and I saw a little girl, that was probably about eight years old, with a baby on her arms, the baby was probably one or two. I came up to her and asked about her mother, she said that she worked from early in the morning until late at night and during the day she had to take care of her little brother. I supposed someone took care of the baby while she went to school for a few hours in the day but got surprised with her answer: "I can't go to school, I stay with him the entire day." This type of answers you don't forget that easily, especially when they are coming from such a smiley and happy little girl. What was I supposed to answer? I still can't figure it out. One of the other days, we walked to another town, to spend a fun day with the kids and go to church with them and their families. When the communion part came, I was just watching how everybody smiled while standing in the line, but suddenly my sight lowered and saw about forty naked feet, but they were nothing like Katy Perry's feet, they had scars, dried blood, dried mud and a lot of dust. Could you imagine yourself walking all day and night without a pair of shoes? And by the way, Huaraz has very low temperatures, it reaches -3-celsius degrees at night. Then, I started to think... Sometimes I complain because my shoes are not high enough, or warm enough, or fashionable enough when there are people that don't even own a pair. And this is a story that really broke my heart. Every day I saw a little girl, she was two years old, she always walked around the house we were staying at, the smile on her face was inspiring. I loved spending time with her, we shared my food, we laughed, we sang, we danced, we ran, it was priceless. Then on the last day, I was told that she didn't have her parents, she lived with some cousins or friends of the family. A two-year-old living basically on her own? Exactly, I had the same reaction. I ended up realising that sometimes you need to have these "shocks" in your life in order to realise who you are, what you own, who you share it with and how lucky you can be. We need these impacts in our lives to start acting and stop focusing your life in your cell phone, the internet, how hot your food is, what car you have and how many pairs of shoes you own. I was incredibly lucky to live this experience, to meet all these amazing kids and families that inspired me so much. Watching all the kids having fun without the use of an iPad or iPhone, just running around, playing with animals, plants and with their friends. I believe that we are so used to live our lives, that we become extremely self-centered and we forget that there are so many people out there that need us. One of the most important rules of life is to put yourself in other's shoes, and we forget to do this quite frequently. But it is a very effective rule, it allows you to step out of your world and enter a whole different life, where you can learn so much and cause a big impact in the world around you. Even the smallest things can cause a big impact, in the end, the rat was able to cause a huge impact in all of our lives, it is a story that I will never forget.
5 Comments
Ariana
8/16/2015 02:34:56 pm
found your blog!! 😁 voy a leerlo siempre jajajaja
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Bill Cotter
8/17/2015 11:10:50 am
I loved the line, "we forget that there are so many people out there that need us." Please see your growth chart for more feedback.
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Mr. Alcodray
8/17/2015 11:23:20 am
Anecdote: check.
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Emilio
8/17/2015 11:41:17 pm
Loved the Post!The only thing that I would recommend since your blog was incredible was that you mentioned the rat at the beginning and at the end but in the majority of context and what atleast I felt was you "shock" was the little girl taking care of his brother,not the rat.So maybe in your concluscion conclude it with the girl.
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8/27/2015 03:21:21 am
Hi Ari,
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