Tisa and Katie previously described our experience with our first two house visits and, through this blog I will share with you guys the last house we visited. Pati is known as a community leader at Casa Del Alfarero. Her job is to observe what’s going on in the community she lives in and to focus on the health of the people that populate that community. She lead us to her humble home where we were introduced to four of her six children (2 of which were sleeping) and her 4 month-old grandson . Pati’s home consists of one room with 3 beds, a dirt floor, a tin roof, and a blanket for a door. Pati, her husband, and her six children, and her grandson have made this room their home. They don’t have actual legal ownership over the land they live in so, if the government decides to use this land for an alternate purpose then they would be left without a home.
I was so grateful because Pati openly invited us into her home without hesitation and shared with her her worries, her hopes, and her past. As soon as I walked in to her home I noticed that the 8 year old boy was left to care for his 15 year old sister’s baby while she went to school. I sat on the bed and saw that he had a radiant smile that instantly filled the entire room. Pati then announced that there was something that she needed to share with everyone. She mentioned that after her first husband (the father of all her children) died of alcoholism she became very abusive with her children. She mentioned that she would beat them and speak to them with deep anger. She spoke with such sadness and said that Casa Del Alfarero had helped her see her children as blessings and it gave her such peace of heart. She told that she encouraged her children to dream big so that they can accomplish the things she could never do. She said that one of her sons would be an electrician because he loved playing with cables. Her 8 year old son was going to be her lawyer because he can retain information easily. Her youngest son would become a soccer player because he is always playing with a ball and her grandson would be a nurse, because that’s what she loved to do.
We gave her some words of encouragement that came from the scriptures and Laura asked one of us to pray for the family out loud. Although I was very hesitant, I offered to say the praying. I prayed for their health, I prayed to God and asked him to give Pati and her children the courage to continue to work hard and believe in their potential to achieve their dreams.
As we left the house I was talking to one of the volunteers from Casa Del Alfarero about Pati and her family. She shared with me that Pati’s daughter, Katy, was in a relationship with a man who was a drug trafficker and who impregnated and abandoned her as soon as their soon was born. Taking in the reality of these people was really a wake up call for Tisa, Katie, and me. We walked to Casa Del Alfarero with heavy hearts as we swatted the flies away from our faces.
Nicol.
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