Independence Day and Experiences of Grace

Hello everyone! Well, it's been a busy week so this may be a longer post. So bear with me...

September 15th, this past Thursday, marked Guatemala's Independence Day from Spain in 1821. Actually, it is the independence day of all Latin America. As you can imagine, it was a pretty big day. There were many many many parades, and I did not have Spanish classes. The day before, however, the students in my school and I did presentations in Spanish on different aspects of Guatemalan culture. I presented on the history of the various capitals of Guatemala (Antigua was the third capital), and others presented on the significance of elements of the flag, etc. The school also took some pictures of us, which are on my facebook.

The next day, I met with my teacher to watch the morning parades in Antigua. Most of the schools participate in the parades, so a large part of the parade was children  playing instruments, wearing sashes and traditional clothing, waving flags, and doing other fun things. It was quite a sight, and the weather in the morning was absolutely gorgeous. Most of my pictures of the parade have the volcano in the background. As the parade went on, you can see the volcano gradually accumulate more clouds. Heres a link to my facebook for all the pictures. They are quite colorful. So all in all, it was a good day.

Today was another special day for me because I accompanied my teacher to San Hermano Pedro Hospital for Mass and to visit with the children living at the hospital. There I met Jose, the little boy that she visits every Sunday (I wrote about him in a previous post; he is mentally and physically handicapped and was abandoned by his family, but she has visited him every week for the past few years). It was great to meet him finally. He is so cute. Very tiny; he's ten but looks like he's five. He probably weighs no more than forty pounds. He looks healthy and like he gets plenty to eat; he's just a little guy.

After Mass, I went back to the children's section of the hospital and my teacher and I visited with Jose for a bit. Then I walked around the room where the kids' beds are and visited with some them who were laying in their cribs. A lot of them were lying there, looking at the ceiling. None of them can talk, but they respond when you talk to them by smiling, laughing, or looking at you. I had a book of different children's stories in Spanish, and I read each of them a different story. I don't know how much they understood, but they seemed to be listening. And they liked the pictures. Mostly I think they like hearing someone talking to them and giving them attention.

Today also happened to be the 27th anniversary of...something (I didn't really catch what it was...I think maybe the anniversary of the new hospital building) so they had a huge party for the kids. They had a DJ in the courtyard/playground in the middle of the children's area playing kids music. Most of the kids were wheeled out surrounding the courtyard and volunteers walked around visiting them, moving their arms and wheelchairs to dance with the music. They loved it. A lot of them were laughing and smiling. They ate lunch while the music played. I helped feed one little girl in a wheelchair who is probably around eleven. She kept dropping her towel/napkin on the floor because she thought it was funny. It was cute. Later on, a couple of clowns came and did animal balloons and a magic show for the children, who loved it. I sat with a little girl, probably around four or five, and fed her a bottle while we watched. I was sitting next to my teacher, who was holding Jose, and the little girl and Jose kept looking at each other and smiling. It was so funny.

I find it appropriate that today's Gospel was the one where Jesus says "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." In our society, people with disabilities are definitely treated as "the last." They are different from the norm; they are a major imperfection in a society that strives to be perfect and the best (and I am speaking about the United States, mostly because that's what I know). They are often objects of disgust, locked away in facilities where, despicably, they are sometimes abused. In our world, the disabled (I don't really like that word, but I don't know how else to say it) are often treated as being sub-human. But in God's eyes, they are far from that; they are creation.

Today at Mass, I felt a lot of different emotions, but the two major ones were shame and humility. Mostly, I felt incredibly unworthy to be surrounded by those who are first in God's kingdom, these most innocent and vulnerable of God's children. Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by complacency and comfort, which was why when I first met these children and patients at the hospital, I felt uncomfortable being outside of my normal. And I felt ashamed for feeling this way. Throughout the day, my feelings of uncomfort eased, but this sense of humility, a kind of awe at God's creation, remained. I definitely plan to go back to the hospital more. It's certainly more possible to do so now that my Spanish is better. My teacher said this week we could go again. But anyway, those are my thoughts for now. I am sure that this will be in the back of my mind for quite a while though. I will blog more if I have some more thoughts. But I think that's good for tonight.

Peace to all who read this!