Pedazo

This is a brief piece that I wrote for the American Waldensian Society´s newsletter this week...

There are things in life that you can never imagine, no matter how hard you try, until they actually happen. I think immediately to certain aspects of my work at La Obra Ecumenica Barrio Borro in Montevideo. I have, at various moments in time, found myself: teaching little kids The Name Game Song (“Sergio Sergio bo-bergio, banana nana fo-fergio, me-mi-mo-mergio, Sergio”) in an effort to learn new names as well as teach some basic music theory; tutoring high school chemistry in Spanish; putting slices of mozzarella on pizza fresh out of the oven at lunchtime, all the while making jokes with the cook; getting roped into dancing salsa and cumbia with multiple women old enough to be my mother.

The funny moments, though, aren´t the eye-opening ones. The kids who looked at me like a crazy person for singing a silly name song come from a single-mother households, low-income families, or living situations marked by violence. The students in Centro de Estudios face an uphill battle every day as they try to balance complicated home situations and economic pressure with the stresses of secondary school. The participants of Casa Jóven who wolfed down the pizza might have had their only meal of the day at La Obra, and the women who dragged me onto the dance floor have survived more economic struggles and domestic violence than I can imagine.

Life is two-sided; it´s funny, and it´s heartbreaking. At La Obra, both sides are seen, but with a twist. Instead of wallowing in sad moments and broken realities, the objective is to fix them – to empower, to edify, to help people hope, and work, for a new reality.