Aguabusiness

Yesterday the group spent the day with the kids we sponsor through Compassion International. There are lots of great stories and many of us lost a piece of our heart but I think our hearts grew a little too. Instead of one of those stories, however, I will write about an interesting encounter in the afternoon when I walked down the steet to get more drinking water for the group ( we don't drink the water in Ecuador - bottled water only ).

So anyway I stopped at a little street vendor to make my purchase and gave the guy a twenty dollar bill, which he did not have change for. Here in Ecuador this is not the end of a transaction, just an extension of it as business is never turned away. This guy tried to explain to me that he needed to go to a store across the street ( Papa John's Pizza believe it or not ) to get change for me and I said that was fine.

At about the same time a Quechua woman walked up to make a purchase. Quechua are the indigenous Indians of Ecuador. And in the cities they are treated almost like outcasts at the bottom end of a caste system. Well my sales guy could have taken care of her before he left and I should have told him to do so but that did not happen. He left and the two of us stood there and she would not look at me.

After a few minutes the guy returned with my change and as he was counting it out a police officer walked up and went right in front of this woman and purchased one solitary cigarette.

And the sad part of all of this for me was not rudeness on the part of that police officer and perhaps myself. It was the complete acceptance of it as normal by this Quechua woman.

Jesus of Nazareth once said something like "the first shall be last and the last first." I think he had her in mind when he said it.