I don’t know how to start this.
Things are messed up.
It would take me days to try but fail to explain how complicated and horrendous things are here in Matamoros.
So I won’t.
Only a couple of short mental postcards.
We are a team of two. We get things, get past customs, put up things, try and help, and then take down a small clinic, then attempt to get past customs again, everyday.
Two days ago, we bought $500 dolors worth of medicine from a Mexican pharmacy. And more yesterday.
Today, a little different morning. As I tried to find crutches, Suzanne had meetings with US governmental authorities, in person, and on the phone with congressional representatives in Washington D.C.
The things we take across the border can be controversial, and especially the things we bring back.
Dr. Suzanne is the only medical help in this camp. It kills me but I unfortunately have to ask people to come back tomorrow, or we would be there all night.
I triage many people, and love talking to them, but always break inside hearing their stories.
As a single mother, have you ever fled serious danger to walk with your 4 and 2 year old from Honduras or El Salvador? For a month? Then to be stuck in figurative and literal mud 50 meters away from safety? There must be a serious reason one would do this. If you think I’m exaggerating, go to downtown Guatemala City or San Pedro Sula in Honduras.
Tomorrow, we’re setting up safe water stations strategically throughout the camp.
The flu is escalating. With no hygienic facilities, it spreads like wild fire.
To add to that, in this small but cramped camp, there has been 18 kidnappings this month. Those are just the confirmed ones.
As much as we don’t like or understand boundaries, we can appreciate the significance a nation has for its own borders. But what this US administration is doing to our neighbours from the Americas is truly wicked.
Things are messed up.
I don’t know how to end this post.
So instead of showing a sad picture of a naked Guatemalan baby crying, or a dirty Salvadorian mother holding her two filthy kids in the mud, here’s a picture of a potty mouthed priest from Notre Dame giving out bottles of water while wearing a hat I find hilarious.
If you want to help a little, please check out a-ripple.org.
A $3.00 gift is A LOT for somebody that has less than zero.
We’ll share it wisely.
Gracias.
