Well, last night and today I’ve been in a state of anxiety. Our youngest, Joseph, lives in New York City, he and all his housemates have no work. They are all artists. Their rent is absurd and they have leases that our other son, Coury, and his wife co-signed for Joseph and his beloved.
Coury’s wife, Cassie, is a family practice physician and is working in a clinic when she is not in quarantine. In their not too spacious house are their two children, a housemate, and now another of our sons, Daniel, and his wife and daughter. Three children under the age of three years! Daniel and Claudia are trying to discern whether to stay there or come home.
Then there is son Tiff’s fiancé, Liz, whose father needs new lungs and her brother’s house burnt down… the parents and new baby were not home at the time of the fire.
Then there is us and our work. With Sarah not going to the States and with all the economic unrest, we are wondering how we will pay bills, buy medicines, and pay staff. She frequently raises around $40,000 during spring speaking. Nine containers of peanuts are stuck in warehouses in Honduras waiting for their inspection offices to open, while accruing storage charges of $150/day/container. The peanuts did not get on the boat they were supposed to. One sesame buyer is wanted to postpone getting their contracted sesame.
Health wise, Mama and I are at the highest risk. For her, well she IS 90 and for me, a compromised immune system and asthma and - yes – old age. But Kathy is 70; Sarah, 69; and Mike, 68 and he has asthma as well.
See where the panic is coming from?
And yet, my problems are nothing like the people who are crowded into poor crowded neighborhoods. They cannot stay in. They cannot isolate. There is no social distancing option.
If they stay in their tiny houses, they will starve or have heat stroke! It is hot as blazes right now! The government is trying to address this but Nicaragua is POOR as dirt!
If schools cancel, many kids will go hungry because it is their only meal of the day.
Since the political unrest of 2018, the economy is terrible and more people are back on the streets selling fruit and wares, washing windshields, begging, and struggling… they make contact with people in their cars… because if they don’t, they starve.
Markets of cramped stalls and people “schmooshing” together to pass are the main way most Nicaraguans shop, and they shop day-to-day. If the sellers close, they go hungry. If consumers cannot shop they, too, go hungry... the poor do not stock up on toilet paper!
So, my panic seems silly but it is there anyway…or-at least-for today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll not worry so, but get about the business of caring, in whatever way I can, for the poor.
-Kathleen
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