Feb 2, 2008
I think I jumped into this blog without really giving a background on how I came to be here, who Olga is, or what the shelter is about. So, I’ll try to back up to fill you all in on this.
Last spring a friend said, ¨You’ve got to read Enrique’s Journey.¨ I did and I think you all should too! The book is the story of a young man’s journey from Honduras to the US. His mother left him and his sister with his grandmother to come to the US to be able to support them. It talked about her struggles and the struggles of those left behind without their mother. His journey was horrific. He was beaten and sent back many times but was determined to find his mother. The journalist who wrote the book stayed here at Olga’s house and in one part she talked about Olga and this shelter, Jesus el Buen Pastor. When I read that piece I just put the book down and said to myself, “I have to go there and do whatever I can.”
I started researching in the internet and found several sites, found a connection, and came down in Oct with another sister to check it out. When I got here it felt so right. Meeting Olga, I felt comfortable and right at home. Kathrin is a young woman from Germany who has been here for 4 years. I also felt very comfortable with her. So from then I started making plans to come down.
Olga is a woman a few years younger than I. She’s married and has 3 teen/young adult kids. She visited patients in the hospital and found so many from Central America who had been injured on their journey. Their wounds resulted from being attacked by people with machetes, shot by the police, immigration, or bandits, fallen or thrown off of trains and suffering traumatic amputations and whatever else might occur on the journey. When these people were being discharged from the hospital they had nowhere to go and no one to care for them. She said ¨Stay with me,¨ and they did. When her house could no longer hold them, someone loaned them a house. In 2004 President Fox (?) gave her a human rights award. With the money from that award she bought some land and material and the men who were staying at the shelter built it.
The shelter does have some money that comes from a Kellogg grant to cover some salaries. But, all the work that we do buying and selling little bits here and there is all for the possibility of keeping the shelter running and for the needs of the shelter guests-------- or whoever else calls on her (such as the burial for the man who died that I wrote about previously.)
Olga has dreams of making the shelter self supporting. She says, “If not, who is going to support this after I die?” She is in the process of setting up a shop for tire repair. (If you’ve driven these roads, you would also think that was a good idea!!!) She has ordered the equipment and needs another $8,000 to pay for the rest of that and expects to be able to build the shop for another $10,000. She also wants to set up a bakery and candy store in the back of the Albergue/Shelter as part of this self sufficiency plan. The shelter guests would be the employees. It will be a way for shelter guests to have employment and reinforce that they are useful and able to support themselves.
My dreams are a little more modest. I did say OK to being the official ¨nurse¨ at the shelter. For me that means I want to set up a rehab area. So, I’m out looking for a few basic things like elastic exercise therabands, a mirror so they can see themselves. Walking bars, an exercise ball, and I’ll need a copy of the Dr. Charles A. Long balance exercises. (Chuck, could you email those to me please?)
Before saying “yes” to being the clinic nurse, I did talk to Olga about going to Arriaga one week a month to help out at that shelter and do some foot care education too. She´s ok with that.
I think I´ve found a niche that is fitting so well!
Take care all
Lillian
