Experiences II

Each day in Caracas we'd talk about what we'd seen, felt, and learned. Frustrated by the insurmountable need I'd seen, I pledged to work as if it were my house buried under all the mud and sewage. I don't know why, really. Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was just true empathy. But I was certain that one this day I was on a mission to "kick some ass."

So I started digging. And I dug, and I dug, and I dug. Before I knew it, the sun was dipping beneath the horizon. It was time to finish. The indiginous fellow I worked with smiled and patted me on the back- we'd started on the roof of a home and now it was possible to climb in through a window and walk anywhere in the living room (probably 8'x8'x8'). It was a truly amazing amount of mud that we'd moved.

Then, when I climbed out of the home, there was a family sitting atop the massive mud pile I'd created. Two small children and their mother. They met with the man I'd worked alongside and greeted him- they were his family, and this was their house. They greeted me and we shared awkward hello's. The woman was very thankful. But I was a little nervous when they didn't want me to leave. They were motioning for me to sit with them on the mud heap?

In no hurry to get up, I reclined on the pile with them. Together, we watched the dirty sun bid farewell to the skyline. The colors of the sky were unbelievable. It may have been because I was looking at shovel after shovel of mud all day- but I swear that sky was as beautiful as the sky can get.

Then, another child walked up the road and joined the family. He was smiling and holding a large glass bottle of Coca Cola. The mother took the bottle and poured some of it into a dirty cup (actually, it was a cup I'd unearthed). And then, with a smile that impugned the setting sun, she extended the bottle to me. I was stunned- I knew they had made a special effort to procure this ice cold bottle of coke. They intended to keep me there and share the coke with me. There was no turning it down.

Covered in mud and sweat- I took a tentative drink of the coke. They watched me expectantly. I wish I could say I did this in jest, but after my sip became a gulp I let out a dramatic "ahhhhhhhhhhh!" They smiled and smiled and smiled. I smiled too. It was like I had been transported into a coca cola commercial. Surely, I thought, coke holds the power to bring international peace to mankind!

And so I sat on a pile of mud and exchanged goofy smiles with the family. I thanked them profusely for their generosity. It was surely the sweetest drink of my life. I sat on the pile for about 15 minutes- watching the sun go down, feeling content in a hard day's work, and silently bonding with the family. It was the purest good day of my life.