A Day's Life. . .

I remember before my first trip to El Salvador in 1993, one member of our little group mentioned hoping to find "it." She did not know what "it" would be but was certain she would recognize it when "it" was found. Well for me it did not take too long before the important discovery was made. I call what I have grasped onto "The Gift."
“I consider it much more a privilege than a sacrifice to make that schlep, to be in their midst, to share. But mostly to learn.”
That Gift has been given freely to me by so many, over and over again, asking for nothing in return but perhaps friendship. Part of what I have received is "The Gift of Example." I have spent time amidst women and men whose suffering I can only imagine, yet these are the very people who live their lives with hope that tomorrow will be better than today. Their lives are rich examples of faith in a supreme bring, the dignity of self-worth and the spirit of Justice and Community.

I was the recipient of "The Gift" when Doña Aniceta attempted to raise her limp arm and head to greet me, struggling to raise herself up in the hammock that was her invalid bed. While this community fights a daily struggle against malnutrition, that a full plate of food is insistently put in front of me three times a day is another example of "The Gift."

I have always felt uncomfortable when, year after year, I have been thanked in this Salvadoran community for my visits and for our DGH accompaniment. Thanked for "making the sacrifice" of leaving my comfortable home, of leaving my family and job for a week or two, of traveling by plane and then by truck and finally by foot, up and down the breath-taking mountains. Sacrifice? Me? Hardly. I consider it much more a privilege than a sacrifice to make that schlep, to be in their midst, to share. But mostly to learn.

Starhawk, an activist, organizer and author touring the US last year spoke in my home community: "Those who are out to dominate, to destroy, to conquer through Globalization and corporate greed are telling the world one story... It is we who must tell another story. The story of people all over the world who are struggling for survival."

So, for los ancianos y ancianas who have outlived their own children in La Estancia, El Salvador; for los niños y niñas in a rural community in Chiapas, Mexico that it took two hours to reach hiking a mud-caked path; for the five abandoned babies living with AIDS at an orphanage in Ibanda, Uganda: Now your story is told. You are not forgotten. Each of you has given me another piece of "The Gift." Sharing your stories of courage, of survival and of hope, is my small gift in return.

– Shirley Novak, El Salvador, 2003



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