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August 2001
Dear Friends:
Before the first morning was over I thought it might be better
to ask the women in what part of their body they did not feel
pain, rather than ask them where the pain was!
I was with a medical group from the U.S. as they worked in a
community on the southwest coast of Guatemala. My job was to translate
for one of the two women doctors. When I would ask the women who
came to see the doctor, "What is your problem?" they
would begin to describe the pain in their head, and from there
to describe the pain in their back, stomach, knees, arms and feet!
The line of women to see one of the three doctors was long and
almost every woman brought with her children, her own or grandchildren.
Women in their 20s and 30s who looked at least 10 years older
spoke of constant pain in different parts of their bodies. Everyone
looked tired and drab. They wore none of the bright, vibrant colors
you see so often in Guatemalan fabric and art. When asked about
their diet most said their daily diet consisted mostly of tortillas
and black beans.
I tried to listen to each woman as an individual, and not lump
them all into a group labeled, "women with lots of complaints."
When the day came to an end and the doctors had seen all the
patients them could see in one day, (though there was a line of
women still waiting ) I had a moment to reflect on the Guatemalan
women I had been with that day. As I thought about their day-to-day
existence, I realized that it is no wonder that physical pain
is a part of every day for them. Their lives are full of hard
physical labor, beginning for many at 5:00 a.m. with a walk to
the mill to grind the corn for the day’s tortillas. Their
days include washing their family’s clothes by hand, in cold
water; preparing three meals with no access to packaged food or
a microwave oven; caring for their children and sometimes grandchildren;
cleaning the house which might not seem like a big task since
the houses are small, but the same cleaning must be done every
day to combat the ever-present dust or mud; and then there are
the women who must somehow clean a dirt floor every day! In addition
to their "housework" they must find time to go to the
market to purchase food for the day and at the end of the day
many go to church for a worship service or women’s meeting.
All these trips they make either walking or riding on a dangerously
overcrowded bus that would never be allowed on most U.S. roads.
These are their "normal" activities. Of course some
days include trips to the health clinic with a sick child, a visit
with a friend, caring for an elderly relative, a bus ride to pay
the light bill.
And they bear the added burden of being women, most of them poor,
in a society in which women have traditionally been seen as having
less value than men. Many have been forced to submit to the will
of their husband, to the point of having to get permission to
attend meetings. Certainly this marginalization affects both their
emotional and physical health. It is very much like an extra burden
that they carry everywhere with them.
I thought about the Scripture verse in John’s Gospel in
which Jesus says He has come that everyone may have life, an abundant
life. I wondered if for many of the women I had seen that day
the only abundant life they know is one with an abundance of pain,
problems, and children!
It is no wonder that this verse, as well as other parts of the
Bible, have been "spiritualized" by many Guatemalan
Christians so that they believe they will only know the abundant
life that Jesus promised in a life after death. I wondered if
the women could even imagine or dream of an abundant life with
sufficient food for their family, a decent house, clean water,
access to education and health care. These are things that most
North Americans take for granted, for North Americans an abundant
life means more than these basics.
At the end of the two-day clinic I could not help remembering
what a friend said to me some time ago: "Only when everyone
in this world has enough of the basic things in life, only then
will anyone really experience the abundant life Jesus promised."
These words have haunted me for years, followed me from the hills
of North Carolina and my pastorate there, to Guatemala, where
abundance, when measured in terms of things and opportunities,
is in the hands of a very few wealthy families. I know if these
words are true—and I believe they are—you and I have
to look carefully and hard at our lives, at the choices we make,
the way we use our abundance.
Do we want an abundant life for all of God’s children?
Ellen Dozier
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 241
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