Alma, a single mother of 4, tries her best to make ends meet and not get sick. If she were out of work, her children would starve {…}
She’s had it all, enough sicknesses to put her out for months, yet she refuses to stop working. She has no choice. Managing her lifestyle leaves no room for “bed rest”, and so she carries on.
When I came to see her, it was clear on her face and in her bodily expression, that the preoccupation for survival and the health of her children weighed heavily on her.
This surprised me because typically when I’ve walked into the homes of people here in this village, I was usually welcomed with a warm, albeit downward, smile. Yet Alma’s welcome was harshly clouded, to say the least.
She didn’t even want to know what I was bringing, yet was polite all the same to say “thank you, but no, thank you”. My two local counterparts and residents of the village stepped out from behind me and spoke to her in a very calm and nurturing way. They explained to her what I was bringing and how it would drastically change her life.
While Alma was listening to them, I quietly proceeded to filter some of her collected water in the background.
That’s when I saw a peak of curiosity come from her brow, and I took the opportunity to chime back in. I held the cup of water in my hands and presented it to her as if it was a gift for the Queen.
She looked at me, burst out laughing and took the cup to drink…perhaps just to humour me.
As soon as she swallowed the water, you could tell that all the preoccupations in her mind washed away as fast as the water went down, cleansing years of mental and physical agony.
