Unshouldering a Load
I learnt many years ago that there’s no point in imposing my idea of help on people from another culture. This TED talk explains why far more effectively than any of my personal examples. It’s why I choose to find local organisations like Help Colombia rather than doing something on my own. Sandra, who has spent so much time in Australia, may not be a much better judge of when and how to help than I am. Last year, I realised how hard the lockdowns must be on so many Colombians who live hand to mouth. Most endured the lockdowns for a month or more before deciding that they were working in food distribution and were therefore entitled to continue working. So we began to see the return of fruit sellers pushing carts down our street. One particularly rainy day, an old man caught my attention for his persistence in trying to sell his limes despite the unwillingness of our neighbours to venture into the weather. He sat outside our building, soaked, for about 20 minutes shouting ‘libodes’ in his usual nasal style. How badly must he need the money to be outside in this? I began to buy limes only from him, going without until he came past at the same time each week. One day Sandra was with me and asked him why he carried the sack rather than use a cart like other vendors. He said that he caught the bus to a different neighbourhood each day and couldn’t take a cart on the bus. We thought about this for a while before asking him if an upright shopping trolley would help. It was then we learnt that the sack was 40kg