Sometimes there is also cooperation
among the windshield washers. There is one young man, an older
teenager, who has washed my windshield several times and recognizes
my pickup. One day, a smaller child started to wash my windshield
before he got there. I told him I was only going to pay the first
one who started. He smiled and continued to clean one-half of
the windshield. Then he came around as I paid the other boy and
said with a smile, “That’s OK, I’ll wash it
for you next time.”
Another example of cooperation. Just this week a little girl
of 9 or 10 tried to wash my windshield, but her squeegee was too
dry. Some of the windshield washers carry a plastic bottle of
water to squirt on the glass, and she yelled to a friend who was
washing the car next to me. He smiled and quickly squirted some
water on my windshield so that she could continue. Sometimes,
even the poorest among us are willing to share in ways that we
who have so much need to learn.
Not all of the people who wash windshields are so nice, however.
I know one person who had her cell phone stolen by a windshield
washer. I have been luckier than that, but it is not always pleasant.
Once two people came up, and I told the second that I was only
going to pay one. He became very angry and yelled some things
about my mother (the worst kind of insult here in Nicaragua).
Then he turned around and bent down so I couldn’t see what
he was doing. He was filling his squirt bottle with muddy water
from the side of the street. Just as the light changed and I started
to drive away, my clean windshield was sprayed with muddy water.
In rural areas people are very poor, but they live in the context
of caring families and communities. As they are forced by their
poverty to come to the city to earn a little bit of money, they
are often so terribly adrift that it is easy to fall into drugs
(glue sniffing is cheaper than eating), violence, anger, or prostitution.
A little bit of anger at the stoplight is not a big surprise,
as these young people compete for single-cordoba coins (less than
6 cents) to help to feed their families.
Every day more people from the countryside move into the city
in search of nonexistent jobs. As the Central American Free Trade
Agreement comes into effect and Nicaragua is flooded with U.S.
agricultural products, there will be even less work in the countryside
and the trickle of people will likely turn into a flood. How many
more windshield washers does Managua need?
Doug
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
57 |
