Picture this………..living right on the Pacific coast. As you walk home from work, you can see the beautiful sunsets all year long. When the chores are done you can relax, and enjoy your time. Then have the opportunity to go to bed early so you can get up the next day and do it all over again. Sounds sweet eh? Well let me share with you about such a community and then I’ll ask you a few questions that I’ve been asking myself.
As we spent our time living near the beach with the people of Canchamana last weekend, my heart broke. I mean they had it all made, right? A beautiful setting for a dream home and they were living it up. Literally day after day they had it going on. But friends, let me share with you why my heart broke. Here’s what life is like for the community of Canchamana:
At 4 am (that’s right 4 in the MORNING), they leave for their journey roughly 5 miles away to a town called Tambo de Mora. They ride their donkeys there, collect wild grass and stalks of corn and then pack it all on their donkeys for the long walk back to their homes. They are back around 9 am just in time for breakfast. After breakfast they spread out their grass and stalks for the livestock to eat. They then proceed to milk their goats, the cows, and collect the chicken eggs. When the milk truck comes all the families bring their milk to sell to the milkman. If it happens to be water day, they also bring all of their available containers to get filled up. This happens a couple of times a week as well.
Around 2 in the afternoon or so they open the goat pens and lead the herd down near the beach and neighboring wildgrass fields to graze. Other people untie the cows and do the same in a different location. It’s roughly an hour long process to get the animals to their grazing grounds. But since this is their way of life, all of the animals seem to know exactly where to go. They pass cars on the road with no hesitation and they all know where exactly to be. Quite amazing!
So around 5:00 the “shepherds start their journey back to the community with the livestock. Darkness sets in around 6:30, so perfect timing to tie up the cows, put the goats back in the pen, and feed the pigs, chickens, hens, ducks, turkeys, geese, guinea pigs, dogs, and cats.
The community has no electricity at all so when it’s dark, it’s dark! Things have to be done before it’s too late. Everyone is on the same page and the everyone in the family helps out. As you can probably imagine, this is a daily thing. And there is no such thing as a day off, or a sick day. No holidays, no overtime, no minimum wage. Only life as it is. You keep going with what you have and maintain it.
So 3 days I could handle, but a lifetime of this? I get cranky with some of my jobs. I get frustrated sometimes with people in my work places. I get sick and sometimes can’t work even though I want to. Heck, I take time off because I know I earned it. But what standard do I compare myself to? Do I do these things to fit in with the North American workforce standards? Do I feel I have these rights and justification for my attitudes because I have freedom of choice to work in the jobs that I do? When it comes to ministry, why do I complain when I’m tired and feel I need a “God day” to recover? I’m human, right?
So how come these people are in this lifestyle? Well folks there’s more to the story! You see, before the earthquake this little community was located on the beach roughly 1/2 mile from the water’s edge. There was a school, water flowing to the town, people wanting their goods and paying fair prices for them, land for the livestock to graze outside their door, and a school for the kids. The town of Tambo de Mora even took them in as part of their community even though they lived about 5 miles from the town. The mattered, they had life going on, they had it made…………..for generations!
Then on August 15th, 2007 an 8 1/2 magnitude earthquake shook up the south west part of Peru. And life changed! The people moved up onto the bluffs overlooking the beach about 2 miles away to escape the risk of more such events. Their homes on the beach destroyed, the school gone, the rights to their land gone with disaster risk warning! This only the surface of the situation:
Tambo de Mora has taken back it’s claim on the people, as well as the nearby town of Sunape want’s nothing to do with these now “nomadic” of sorts people. The mayor of Tambo de Mora gave them a plot of land to live on near the town yet there cannot be any livestock in the city limits in which this land is located. So you can see the problem there. The land the people are currently on is rented land from a gentleman that is overlooking the property of another man who isn’t currently living in the country of Peru. The man overlooking the land is charging rent for a year’s time and the owner doesn’t even have knowledge of this either. The people are scared that they could be removed before the year is up as well.
Just west of this property is also a huge garbage dump. Now this dump is not your regular dump. Sure garbage is garbage, but when it’s dumped illegally it’s another story. Well that’s the story there! Almost every day a western wind blows the smell and fumes from this dumping ground over the property and the people are all sick and have some sort of flu or bronchitis. The school that once was is no more either. The desks, books, and other materials are being sent to other schools in the city and the children have to somehow travel 5 miles a day to go to school when it commences in March.
The prices for milk for these people (which happens to be their primary source of income) are about a 3rd of what it sells for in the market. They have been using the convenience of milk pick up to get rid of their milk as they have no way to transport it into town. And the overlaying factor is that these people don’t have or even qualify from banks to get the money to buy land even if there was some available. A few months prior when inquiring about land, an American gentleman had the funds available and when the land owner saw him she tripled her price.
You may be thinking what the heck? Well, I haven’t been only thinking it but also crying out to the Lord for some sort of word of hope for these people. How can we be a light? How can our 3 days count? What is there we can do? All any of us received from the Lord one day as we sat in listening prayer about it was: “Just be with them!” And so we did.
I’m not asking for financial help for these people (like that would help) or for you to feel all sorry for them either. I’m asking you join me and ask yourself how happy are you to be able to wake up in the morning and appreciate the time you do have. I’m on a trip around the world this next year, what can I do for people like this? How can I show Jesus to them? How can I appreciate my “work” when I just don’t want to do anything? Should I feel guilty to take well deserved time off? Should I be arrogant by thinking that these people are wrong and should take a day of rest? These people are trying to live. They are trying to make ends meet. They don’t have any idea what the future has in store for them. They look one day ahead and works towards that. I learned a lesson in humility this weekend. I take so much for granted. I don’t feel guilty for what I have. All I could do was listen. All I could do was watch. All I could do was be!
