$62.17

March 9, 2005
The day is just beginning and it is a good one already. It doesn’t take much to make the sunshine on a cloudy day. My driver has been increasingly depressed. He is a closed man and offers nothing that would leave him vulnerable and unnecessarily raw. He confided to a best friend this week and apparently cried enough to create a tsunami. Something profoundly is out of place. His wife, two children, mother and father were killed in the tsunami. He is homeless now and faces the stark reality that none of his loved ones will be coming home. I cannot conceive of losing so many close people to me all at once. How does the heart compartmentalize the pain? I simply don’t know. I asked him what it would take for him to help him. He shared that his license to work as a driver was lost in the tsunami and that he cannot afford to replace it. “How much is it,” I asked? $62.17. The sum total for permission to drive and support his life and build another future is a mere $62.17. Done. I put the money directly into his hand and it was like the amazement the people must have felt when the Red Sea parted in biblical times or when the Berlin wall fell in modern times. It was the best $62.17 investment I had ever made in another person’s future.

Back to follow up on Save The Children’s assessment of the orphanage. They happily informed me that they indeed saw the facility and have committed to clean up, painting and sewage disposal along with minor repairs. “When will you start,” I asked? “We started already, they announced! Happy, too happy. I am too happy. With their assistance, I will be able to use the money I have from donations for other things that are needed. I received sanitary napkins, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, toilet brushes, gloves, shovels and boots from another organization whose name I don’t mention because they are too shy to be known for their stepping out of the box to do the necessary. Today is like an old fashion Campbell’s soup commercial? MM MM good!

Later in the day, distribution. The children lined up respectfully and extended their hands as if receiving a diploma from high school graduation. They incline their heads and say reverently Terimah kasih! Thank you. We gave them three bars of soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Again, the world opened seemed abundant for a moment for them. The working crew continued shoveling pounds of mud and muck stagnant for the past two months. The orphanage was going to look special, after all. I coordinated a visit of another humanitarian organization who has also committed to making a difference. I am so grateful and encouraged that people go the extra mile to make this difference, too. It is like light in the middle of the night.

Darkness prevailed though when I was told we would not be permitted to paint the boys room rainbow. “You can paint it cream,” the religious leader said. Disdain is all I have for him. Ill wishes and thoughts better left unmentioned filled me to the brim. Good night.
Love,
Cary