Worthless

Lee Rainboth in his Green Mango blog, cites a character in Ishmael Beah’ Radiance of Tomorrow:

“You are not free until you stop others from making you feel worthless. Because if you do not, you will eventually accept that you are worthless.”

I have written several times on how the poor are looked down on here in Honduras.  A few years ago the president of the National Congress referred to the as ‘gente del monte’ – hicks, hay seeds, hill-billies.

Just recently I wrote of two people who stated, ”I can’t,” when asked to draw something. Why? because they could not read or write.

 I shared the story of these two men with a young woman who is a lawyer who grew up in Dulce Nombre.

She told me of a man in one of the workshops she was facilitating for Caritas. He too could not read or write. He told her that he really couldn’t do much. He was virtually worthless.

Reina asked him what he did. He was a farmer who raised corn and beans.

Her response was perfect.She has not forgotten her roots.

"If you don’t grow corn and beans, we in the cities would not eat."

I hope he went home with a little pride in what he does – feed us.