Tias and Tios are the Honduran women and men who work on the Ranch as "parents" for these hundreds of children. I have yet to envy their job -- they work from 5am-8am and then again from 12 noon until 8pm (though on weekends/days without school they work from when the kids wake up until when they go to sleep ... without a break). They work 10 days on and then have a long weekend every other weekend. Every night one of them sleeps in the hogar with the kids. They are in charge of things like making sure the kids get up in the morning, get to school on time, and get their homework done. They are there to pick the kids up from school and discuss homework/behavior with the teachers. They are there to make sure the kids do their daily chores and work on the weekends. They are there to tickle and play with the kids, but also to discipline those kids who misbehave. I have been amazed at how much some of them treat these children as their own and share so selflessly. I have also been to happy not to have their job as they are having power struggles over things like brushing teeth, doing homework, or going to bed... with 28 children.
And maybe more impressing than their devotion to their work on the Ranch, is the fact that many of them have husbands, wives or children outside of the Ranch as well. In addition to only seeing these family members every other weekend, a lot of them also enroll in the University and take classes those same weekends they are off.
When I think about their lives, I cannot help but think, "I could never do that." Maybe because I would not do it as joyfully as they do, but probably because I can't imagine living with that little free time. Free time is a luxury I have certainly taken for granted in my life. I often focus on my physical luxuries, but that is certainly an invisible luxury that separates me from many. But I think it also encourages me to be productive with my hands and with my time. There are so many ways I could spend a day, an hour, a minute and these men and women daily inspire me to work harder, complain less, and give more.
1 comment:
tez
i added you and bret to google reader, have you heard of it? im sure you have because of your google stint from last semester.
i collected leaves for you, they are currently in one of my textbooks, without any parchment paper (we didnt have any), they should be ok, right? they are from the lakewood, yes!
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