What do I do with poverty?

I sat in a tiny house in the community of Yaviza.  The small, one room house was home to seven children and two adults.  One child, the oldest, was confined to bed because of severe arthritis.  The youngest, about two months old, lay sleeping in a hammock.

The girls and I had just as many after four days in the area, so my heart went out to the poor thing.  Those bites really itch.  So I sat down and began rubbing her legs.  I thought she might be frightened of me, but the relief from the bites must have been greater than any fear.  She quieted down at once as I rubbed her legs and spoke to her in a soothing voice. 

Suddenly, in that moment, all that was wrong in the community of Yaviza seemed to have focused in that child.  All of the poverty, the forgotten children, the lost youth, the lack of sanitation, and the hunger, was there before me in the face of that child. Just one child, crying, with no one to respond.

Perhaps I would have seen her just as a toddler crying, if Einer had not shared with me earlier about his deep concern for the children of Yaviza, children whom no one was attempting to reach, children who came into his and Girlessa's home every day. Looking for affection, for attention, or something to eat, they came to the mission and often spent the day there.  Einer told me how his deep concern over the poverty was effecting his health, as he worked hard every day seeking solutions, which seemed hard to find.

If he could not find them, how could I, on this short visit, hope to know how to change anything?

I was at that house that day watching the progress on the latrine we had come to build.  A small gesture that would make a big difference for that family.  As I spoke to the little girl, I felt no judgement for her mother, who was not home, nor for her father, out behind the house working on the latrine.  I just felt sadness in that moment for a little girl wanting comfort in a difficult world.

That evening I hugged Carolyn a little tighter as she went to sleep, as if trying to somehow make up for what I had experienced that day.

After all, who can answer, after all these years of looking for solutions…. "What do we do about poverty?"