Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sorry for not posting more often this week, but our big aggregate assignment is due on Friday and every spare moment that we have is being dedicated to that right now. So I will write just a brief story that happened tonight before I need to return to work and get to bed somewhat early. This is a picture of Anne and I with Jackie, one of my favorite parish nurses sitting in the back of a pick up truck leaving home visits.


I continue to learn something new from the people here every day. I became close with a 17 year old girl that comes to mass almost daily with us. Her name is Stephanie is in her last year of secondary school (high school) at one of the parish schools. After mass I was talking with her and she gave me a picture that she drew for me at school. We continued to talk and she started crying when she was telling me a story about how a girl at school that day had made fun of her for her outfit. I felt so bad for her and I told her that I loved her outfit and that when we left I would give her some of my clothes that I brought with me. She thanked me for my offer, but said that she doesn’t need them because she has a few outfits and other people need them more than she does. She also said, “It doesn’t matter what you wear, it matters what is in the inside.”

This is said so often by people in the United States , but we don’t act this way. Back home I would never think about wearing the same outfit in the same week, yet even in the same month. Americans care so much about the outward appearance and judge people right away by their appearance. For a 17 year old girl to recognize the importance of inner beauty and truly believe that is so impressive. To open up your eyes more to this culture Erica, our Marquette family’s mom, out of the nine times I have seen in the past two weeks, eight of those times she was wearing the exact same shirt, pants, and shoes. Yet is she is so grateful for what she does have and for the things that we give to her. Both of these stories made me feel so guilty for the times that I have thought about online shopping. I wish to bring home and apply the lessons I have learned from these amazing people. 

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