Compassion Fatigue

Ishmael, with the many cuts, is the kid walking closest to me. It's also
fascinating to see how much more our street looks like a real road
three years later! 

It feels like we’ve been helping so much lately that it is really wearing on me. People who need to borrow a little money to pay for an emergency, a kid who keeps saying he isn’t getting any food at home, another boy who keeps knocking on our gate a few times a day for La Maestra to bandage all the random cuts he keeps getting on fingers and toes. I’ve shocked myself by becoming a little too impatient at answering the multiple knocks on our gate during dinner time. The last boy especially has seemed to find it is a way to get inside our gate and talk to us, and he is well behaved so he’s even struck up some equal play with our kids sometimes after he’s bandaged. Last Sunday I was playing a board game with our kids inside while La Maestra was tending to this boy’s cut at the front door. When he peeked through the window to see what we were doing, he was surprised to see me playing with the children. Then he told La Maestra that he wished someone at his house would play games with him. She said that when he is a father he can make sure to play games with his kids and give them that happiness. He gave a big smile and said than they, his children, would be so happy! This was a great reminder that everything we do is a witness to what we believe, and the value that we want to put on people rather than getting things done and not being inconvenienced.

-- El Padre