Celebrating the Connections
It’s been a long strange trip, to borrow from the famous lyrics of the Grateful Dead. The strangest part, we’re not sure when this long trip will end.
This is particularly true for Latin America. As North America and the European Union (including our friends in the U.K.) move from the initial “shock and awe” phase of the pandemic – our colleagues, partners, friends, loved ones, and families in Latin America are feeling the full brunt of SARS-COv-2 and Covid-19. Perú has extended the state of emergency and obligatory quarantine until June 30 – and Brazil, Venezuela and Chile struggle to contain the pandemic and the devastating economic impacts.
We have a ten year old. This morning we were talking about shows we watched when she was much younger. We reminisced about characters and stories. I half expected her to ask me to get my phone to check out some of the programs. Instead she said, “Papa those are fun memories. I liked those shows, but now I see things a little differently. I’m older. I like different shows that challenge me differently.” And, just like that she taught me an incredibly important lesson.
Very early, almost at dawn, the Peruvian television news showed us an unimaginable scene: hundreds and hundreds of people sleeping on the streets of Lima, faces tired from the cold, hunger and despair. Women carrying their children in their arms, sleeping on cardboard. The elderly, young people, adults: people like us and like our families sleeping on the streets in the damp and the cold. Bodies sheltering other bodies. All hoping that in the new day, the desire to return to their cities of origin, to the small homeland, where friends and family live, where they feel part of a community, of a shared history, in the land of their parents and their ancestors.