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About a week ago, I got a virus and started throwing up all night. I would go to bed, lie there, and then jump up, run to the bathroom and get sick. Clean up all around and wash out my mouth with water...we’ve all been there.
Periodically when I get sick like that I remember getting sick here in Nicaragua in 1985 on a Witness For Peace delegation. We were sleeping in a school when I started getting sick. There was an outdoor latrine (or outhouse) and I would wake up and run outside and stand over the latrine (which smells bad on the best of days) and vomit.
Now why would I bring up such graphic and gross things?
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| El Porvenir Latrine |
Someone at El Porvenir, the remote organic coffee cooperative, brought COVID up to their community. 80% of the folks came down with COVID.
Being sick at the best of times is no fun at all. Being sick and being poor, stuck up on a mountain, is unfathomable to me. I have had limited experiences of being sick in the campo, the rural areas. Let me tell you…
There is no running water to clean off or wash your mouth out.
There are only outdoor pit latrines instead of nice clean toilets to flush down and start fresh for the next bout of sickness. No electricity.
There is no way to cool down or heat up when your temperature shoots up or plummets down. Instead you shiver or sweat.
There is no comfortable bed to lie on to doze in and out, only make-shift pallets.
No screens to keep bugs at bay as you moan and groan.
No way to keep the chickens and dogs out of your space
And no entertainment when you are awake to keep your mind off how bad you feel.
Cooking is so difficult if you are the woman of the house, sick and have a family. Getting wood, starting a fire, and cooking tortillas, rice and beans.
No paid sick leave for the farmers….just crops sitting with no one to attend the crops. Nothing is easy.
80% of these folks got sick with COVID. Thankfully no one died.
Now these folks are grateful, because they have all been vaccinated. None of them thought twice about not going through that again.
Poverty in health is difficult and hard. Poverty in sickness is horrid.
No one wants to be sick AND be poor and yet, the poor are the ones who get sick the most. --
Kathleen
[English above]
Hace una semana me enfermé con un virus, pasé la noche vomitando. Me acostaba en la cama, y me
levantaba de nuevo para correr al baño y vomitar. Limpiaba, enjuagaba la boca
con agua… algo que todos hemos vivido.
Cuando me enfermo así me recuerda de la vez que me enferme acá en Nicaragua en 1985 cuando vine como parte de una brigada de Acción Permanente Por La Paz. Estábamos pasando la noche en un colegio cuando me enfermé. Hubo una letrina afuera, pues yo me despertaba, corría para la letrina (lo cual apeste cualquier día) y vomitaba.
¿Por qué hablo de cosas tan gráficas y asquerosas?
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| El Porvenir Home |
Alguien de la cooperativa de café orgánica El Porvenir se enfermó con COVID y el 80% de su comunidad también se enfermó.
Estar enfermo cuando estás cómodo es horrible. Estar en enfermo cuando sos pobre y arriba de una montaña…ni lo puedo imaginar. He tenido algunas experiencias de estar enferma en el campo y déjame decirte...
● No hay agua potable para poder lavarse o
enjuagar la boca
● Sola hay letrinas en vez de inodoros
limpios para deshacer de lo feo y empezar de nuevo
● No hay manera de refrescarte o calentarte
mientras tu calentura suba o baja
● No tenés cama cómoda para acostarte y
descansar
● No hay mosquiteros para repelar los
insectos mientras estés incómodo
● No hay manera de mantener las gallinas y
perros lejos de tu espacio
● Y nada de entretenimiento para distraerte de lo malo que sentís
Cocinar es difícil si sos la mujer de la casa, andas enferma y tenés familia que cuidar. Buscar leña, prender el fuego, cocinar tortillas, arroz, y frijoles.
Nada de pago subsidiado para los campesinos. Solo cultivos sin quién los atienda. Nada es fácil.
El 80% de esta gente se enfermó con COVID. Gracias a Dios ninguno falleció.
Ahora esta gente es agradecida porque se ha vacunado. Ni uno pensó que sería buena idea vivir eso de nuevo.
La pobreza es difícil cuando estás bien de salud. La pobreza cuando estás enfermo es horrible.
Nadie quiere estar enfermo y pobre, pero al final los pobres son los que se enferman de más.
– Kathleen, Jubilee House Community
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