My desire for you

My photo
Jinotepe, Nicaragua
Hello, friends! I hope this story reaches you well and that God touch you in the depths of your heart. All we need to do is open them and our world CHANGES! Blessings, Pat.

February 12, 2010

Monday Night on the streets of Managua


Peace and greetings to all!


Monday night on the way home, after visiting a construction worker friend of Damarys (who led a community service - Nazareth Home Project - which I will share at a later date) we came to a stop light. There was a young guy who was working on the street corners at a traffic light selling water, with a group of others. 
This kid signaled for us to pull over. I was cautious, as you have to be in a city like Managua, but I saw a concerned, desperate look on this kids face and a crowd beginning to gather around a Taxi and he was yelling "he's been shot!...he's been shot!....."
The Taxi driver looked as if he was hurting and in lots of pain. I really didn't know if he was dying or not.  I parked Fabiolla (my truck and blocked all the traffic at the Intersection, so we could stop some of the traffic confusion). I got out of the Truck to see what had happened and what I could do, along with the crowd.  
Apparently, a crazy nut on a motorcycle had side swiped into the Taxi. After the Taxi driver yelled at him at the stop light, the man or teenager, on the Motorcycle pulled out a gun shot the him in or near the heart. 
Everybody was yelling to do some thing different. Damarys called her house on her cel. and told her niece to call an Ambulance. A guy who looked like he knew what he was doing said we could not move the guy. That made sense to me. But I was not sure if the guy was going to bleed to death. My idea was to put him in my truck and take him to the Hospital, but the best thing appeared to wait for the Ambulance. 
So, I moved my truck and then we just waited...... and ......waited....... and in true Nicaragua style...... the group decided to start pushing the Taxi (without moving the guy from the driver seat) to a Hospital that was a few blocks away. After they got through the light and a block away from the Hospital, an ambulance came and took the guy to a Hospital........ 
What I saw in the Nicaraguan people was true solidarity to a man in need.  
We then went home (hour trip) ...... and prayed for this man and his family. 

February 10, 2010

Nazareth Homes Project

Peace and greetings to all!

Partners in Mission Nicaragua
I recently read a story, met an inspiring woman, and read a scripture passage that helped me to understand--once again-- what our Mission in Nicaragua (and wherever we live) really is all about: living the Gospel in real time!

Here is the story:

A truck, crowded with concentration-camp victims, is on its way to the gas chambers. Everyone, including the guards, are silent, because all know the final destination. Suddenly, a man grabs the hand of one of the condemned and begins to read his palm. “Oh, I see you have a long lifeline," he says aloud. “And you are going to have three children.” He is filled with excitement and goes from one man to another predicting futures filled with long lives, loving families, and great joy. Immediately, the moods of the prisoners’ change. One can sense a rising hope. The guards become confused; what seemed inevitable is now in doubt. For whatever reason -surprise, uncertainty, wonder - the men are taken back to the barracks instead of to the chambers. The palm reader was the poet Robert Desnos. What the poet did for these passengers to Auschwitz was to revive the imaginations of those trapped by despair.

The Gospel is Alive!
The story of Dona Rita tells the tale of how one person can revive the imaginations of those trapped by despair.

We ran into Dona Rita on the way to a work site for a Community Service project this past month. She was going somewhere, but nobody really knows where. Dona Rita is about 86 years old. She gave me permission to take her picture. She lives on her own. She prefers to sleep on the dirt ground on her small porch in a poverty that only saints like St. Francis have tried to imitate and could bear. She has repeatedly been beaten and robbed of her spare change, food, and even the clothes that people give her to help alleviate her sufferings. She has been found sleeping along the roadsides in the midst of huge mansions and tin roof wood shacks that make up one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Nicaragua.

We have known Dona Rita for four years. Last week when we stopped to talk with her and ask her how she was doing, she told us she was on her way to visit some family members in Managua to help her nephews. In reality, she can no longer get on a bus and her family members have apparently given up on her. She told us that she has many friends in high places in Nicaragua, as well as friends in Europe and the USA. “One day…” she tells of how she is going to stay in one of her homes in Philadelphia.

Dona Rita can be seen in this neighborhood daily. She shuffles slowly, one step at a time with her walker, but she moves with determination. She has somewhere she is going. The day we visited her, she was on her way to buy food for a big party: a party that she was going to organize “to give food to everyone who comes, with Caribbean music and dancing,” which was going to be played by a musical group from Bluefields. Before finishing her description of how the party was going to be, she invited all the work crew to come to the party.

During the four days of our manual labor work project, the youth group from the Orphanage visited with her and helped to clean her home and yard. On the day of the party, Dona Rita had provided the dream, the youth group brought the food, the teenagers played and danced, and we all had a great time. Our son Christopher also enjoyed himself.

We all learned a valuable lesson from Dona Rita. Every day you have to have a dream and a desire to fulfill and that will get you through the day. Dona Rita has reportedly escaped every retirement home she has been taken to because as she says, "I prefer to trek with pain than sit down and quit." Why? Because she is walking towards her dream; a dream that always includes everyone.

Her uncomfortable presence reminds us of the poor in our midst. In a world that is often dominated by a radical consumerist and individualist influence on every corner, Dona Rita desires to dream, share and serve others. In a society that proclaims old people should not have to suffer, Dona Rita prefers to be beaten physically rather than surrender her spirit and die spiritually. Dona Rita is unstoppable, and for me she is a hero. Maybe, at best, we can befriend her with along with others who care for her (both the rich and poor of the neighborhood.) In the future, when she asks for help we can be there for her. All of us can help fulfill her dream: food for everyone, a party, dancing with live Caribbean music, friends and family surrounding her to enjoy life together.

The Gospel and Dona Rita
For me, Dona Rita is a living Gospel. She is much like the old woman Jesus praised in Mark: Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’ (Mk, 13, 41-44)

This poor widow gave all she had. Everything. Nothing was left, except her belief that God will take care of her. God bless and long live Dona Rita! Lord, teach us to have the faith of the poor and little ones of this earth.
May God bless and inspire in you a dream that includes all of Gods people!

All the best in 2010,

Patrick, Damarys and Christopher


Patrick T. Duffy, Jr
Charles de Foucauld Lay Missionary
Apartado LM 131
Managua, Nicaragua
Home: 505-2-532-0346
Cel. 505-8-655-7368
www.patduffyjr.com

February 2010

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Damarys, Christopher and Patrick visiting Cincinnati (Click photo for larger image.)

More images from Nicaragua