Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Face of Hope



We ended our trip in Guatemala on an unexpected and much needed high note. Being surrounded by such poverty for even a short period of time can be an emotionally exhausting experience. I felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem and the fact that we had only witnessed the very tip of the poverty iceberg. One could easily begin to believe that the problem is outside the realm of possible solutions. I was guilty of fostering those thoughts, wondering if there was any hope for the beautiful, suffering poor in our world. And then I met Oswaldo.

Oswaldo is a teenager who has been sponsored by the CFCA for a number of years. His sponsors are friends of my parents, and when they heard we were going on our trip to Guatemala they asked us to see if we could meet with their sponsored child. When we arrived in Guatemala we gave Oswaldo’s information to our guides, not knowing if meeting him was even a possibility. Although we didn’t know it at that time, we would not only get to meet Oswaldo, we would get to spend an entire afternoon with him.

We met Oswaldo and his parents in the town of Antigua, the last place for us to visit before leaving Guatemala. Antigua is one of the larger cities in Guatemala and much more modern than most of the towns we visited. Although Oswaldo only lives thirty-five miles from Antigua, this was his first visit to the city. His father had been to Antigua only once, and his mother was making her first trip as well. Many of the poorer people in Guatemala will spend their entire lives in or near the town where they were born. They have little means and little reason to travel, as most of them live surrounded by family. It seemed as though the trip to Antigua was as exciting for them as it was for us.

When we first met Oswaldo, I was struck by just how normal he looked. He seemed to me no different than any fourteen-year-old on the planet. If we had plucked Oswaldo from Guatemala and placed him in any city in America, no one would have taken a second glance. He would have fit right in.

But we had seen the homes where sponsored families live, and this was a sponsored family. We had witnessed the struggles they face each and every day. Oswaldo’s home, we found out, was no different than the rest. If his family needs electricity, they must borrow it from a neighbor, and their home has no running water. Oswaldo is a product of the same poverty we had seen all week, yet there was something so strikingly different about him. That difference, I realized, was hope.

Most of the sponsored children we had seen were very young. This was our opportunity to witness what sponsorship can accomplish over the years. The most important requirement of the CFCA is that every sponsored child must stay in school. Education is the absolute key to ending the cycle of poverty. If a sponsored child leaves school, their sponsorship ends. Oswaldo knows this, his family knows this. And because he has stayed in school, because he is receiving the education he so desperately needs and deserves, we saw in him the strength of a life with purpose.

The morning before we left Guatemala, I saw a father sitting along the side of a road with his two young sons, both of whom couldn’t have been older than ten years old. All three of them were holding a large hoe in their hands, waiting for a ride to the fields where they work. Those two children are likely to face that same morning and that same wait for the rest of their lives. Without the benefit of education, they face a lifetime of backbreaking labor and a lifetime of poverty.

Oswaldo, by his own determination and will, has beaten the odds and stayed in school. His horizons have stretched far beyond that of a child who knows nothing but the wooden handle of a hoe. Neither of Oswaldo’s parents made it past the third grade. It wasn’t until we sat down in a restaurant that I recognized the fact that his parents couldn’t read. When a menu was placed before them, Oswaldo reached across the table to help them read it.

He was as polite, as gracious, and as kind as any teenager I have ever met. He showed maturity far beyond his years. He was interested in our lives, what kind of work we did and where we lived. He explained to us that after graduating from high school, he hopes to attend college and become a nurse. I felt as if I was ready to burst with happiness. Here was a young man able to see beyond the barriers of poverty, a young man with purpose and hope. Oswaldo shares his home with four younger brothers. His hard work and his success will offer his brothers a rare opportunity to discover their own potential, because Oswaldo's hope is contagious.

Oswaldo’s struggles are far from over. For the children of Guatemala, graduating from high school is a rarity. Going to college is almost unheard of. The CFCA is trying and succeeding, in changing that. Although a child’s sponsorship officially comes to an end when they graduate from high school, their sponsors can choose to continue offering support for college. Oswaldo has the support he will need. The courage to break through the barriers that hold so many back will be entirely up to him. I only spent one afternoon with Oswaldo, but that’s all it took - I know he can do it.

Oswaldo was exactly what I needed before leaving Guatemala. Because of him, everything seemed to fall into place. The children of Guatemala do not realize the beautiful potential that lies within each and every one of them. To meet Oswaldo and to see a child who understands the value of their own potential, was beyond moving. It filled me with hope, with a realization that the cycle of poverty can and will be broken. One human being at a time.

I watched Oswaldo’s eyes well up that day. He was asking us to pass along a word to his sponsors. Every single night, he told us, before he closes his eyes to sleep, he offers a prayer for them.

I believe with all my heart that his future is limitless and bright. I believe it for one reason – because Oswaldo is exactly what hope looks like.

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