A letter from Doug Orbaker in Nicaragua
August 2013
Alfonso Pumps Water
Alfonso
In fact, Alfonso pumps water for just about everyone in the community of El Ingenio, and then he sometimes puts their water containers in his little cart and takes the water to their house for them. Alfonso is mentally challenged; he can hardly speak and just isn't very bright. One family in the community gives him a place to sleep in a little building near the house and breakfast. Other families give him other meals, and the whole community takes care of him.
In return, every morning Alfonso goes to the community well and draws the water for the family that houses him. Then he goes back to the well and pumps the water for everyone who comes for water. The well has a rope pump, which was installed a few years ago as a project of CEPAD (the Nicaraguan Council of Protestant Churches, a PC(USA) mission partner in Nicaragua). As someone turns the crank, each little suction cup tied on the rope about a meter apart creates a vacuum that pulls up a little bit of water. But this well is deep. In some shallow wells you can get water after only 8 or 10 turns of the crank. I turned this one more than 50 times before the water started to flow. The water is heavy and the crank is hard to turn. Alfonso works hard to help everyone get their water.
This is a just one example of how a rural Nicaraguan community takes care of one of its own whose mental or emotional abilities are different. Without the help of his community, Alfonso probably would have starved to death, because he simply isn't mentally able to take care of himself. Instead he has been totally accepted as part of the community that watches over him and cares for him. And he cares for his community as well—his gift is to pump the water from the community well.
A few weeks ago in the community of Cerro Blanco we met Jose, who also is cared for by his community like Alfonso. Jose was born deaf, and because of the lack of special schooling he has never learned to speak, although he can make sounds. He also never received the socialization skills that children who can hear receive. He is an adult with the emotions of a little kid. Again, the community takes care of him, making sure that he has some work to do, enough to eat, and a place to sleep.
But this is not just about Alfonso and Jose. It is also about the love and care of communities that watch over their own, and about those of us who visit those communities for short visits.
The group that was with me in El Ingenio accepted Alfonso as part of the community, talking to him and even sharing a snack. Jose didn't fare as well with the group that met him. A few members of the group spoke of him as being creepy and refused to have anything to do with him. Yes, his behavior was kind of strange—as I said, he's an adult with the emotional capacity of a little kid.
One young woman in the group was especially upset and came to me to say that the community needs to do something about him. I said that the community had already done something about him. They have accepted him as part of their community; they provided for him and watched over him. She wasn't satisfied with that and it showed in her written evaluation where she wrote that I “refused to do anything about the situation.” I'm not sure what she expected that I, or anyone else, could do, but she wanted “something.” As we reflected with the entire group it became clear that most of the group were not bothered by Jose, recognizing his abilities and disabilities and the community's care for him.
In the U.S. we often have special schools and special programs that enable us to shift the care of people like Alfonso and Jose away from our communities, out of sight. Here in Nicaragua there is no such option, but the communities accept people whose abilities are different and find a place for them, a place where there is care in their own communities. I'm really sad that the young woman who was with me in Cerro Blanco couldn't see beyond her own fears of something different to see that.
CEPAD works to help communities like these develop. But the development isn't always along the lines of what we from the U.S. would do if it were up to us. CEPAD can help people learn better ways of growing food on their small plots of land that can provide more food and a more balanced diet in an organic sustainable way. CEPAD can provide projects like the well and pump in El Ingenio. But the love and care that the people of these communities show is already there, even before CEPAD's help. It is care for each other and for those of us who come as strangers into their communities. It is God's love in action.
CEPAD works for growth and development in rural communities—better crops, stronger families, stronger churches and community projects. CEPAD also works to help you and your congregations learn more of God's love in new situations.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been partnered with CEPAD for many years. It is through your gifts to Presbyterian World Mission that I have been able to be here for almost 10 years, helping mission groups from churches like yours learn new ways of expressing God's love in new, different, and sometimes challenging situations. As I prepare to retire and return to the U.S., I thank you for your support, and I hope it will continue when a new person replaces me here in Nicaragua. And I hope that new person will have the opportunity to visit El Ingenio and watch a community function in Christian love as Alfonso pumps the water.
Doug Orbaker
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 22
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