Jane has visited Safe Passage three times, traveling with her sons and friends. Highlights of her volunteer time include spending days with her sponsor children and their families.
“I was hoping against hope that I would not get assigned to the lice shampoo station. I'd been hugging and playing with kids all week long and had enjoyed the contact and the closeness, but for some reason, thinking about that lice station caused me great anxiety. Of course, when assignments were given out, not only was I assigned to combing head lead, I was put in charge of it! I resigned myself to the task. It wouldn’t be that bad. I could deal with this. All morning I worked on combing head lice from the hair of these beautiful children who literally lived down in the dumps. At lunch I was so tired I wanted to curl up in a corner and go to sleep. After lunch I paced myself, knowing that in a few hours, I would be on a place heading to comfort and cleanliness and peace – leaving this place of grime, garbage, smells and sights so sad I couldn’t process them all at once. Every time I heard a plane overhead I welled up with tears, thinking that I can go home, but these kids, my sponsored kids and the ones I’d come to love during that week, would be still here tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
While volunteering, Jane assisted with lice checks, a much-needed service that keeps the children healthy, clean, and comfortable. In their Guatemala City homes by the dump, children are especially susceptible to contracting these bugs - and others.
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“At last it was time to clean up and leave. It was about 4:15, and we were supposed to pack up our station at 4:00. A young girl came over and asked for a lice shampoo and combing. Every shred of my being wanted to say, ‘sorry, it’s too late,’ but for some reason, all of us who were still working at that station smiled and said, ‘It’s OK, come on over.’ I was done, cooked, spent, hollowed out at that point and seriously questioned whether or not I could do it. I felt so frail and vulnerable. As I looked at this beautiful young girl, I knew that I could do this: I could comb her long, tangled, lice-riddled hair. I could do it by starting very small and working my way through one bit at a time. Another volunteer from Maine was working with me, and as we began to untangle the little girl’s hair, I began to feel something inside me untangle, too. With each stroke, I felt a bit more relaxed and bit less empty, a bit more filled up. What was filling me up was love. As I cared for this child, this stranger to me a few minutes before, I was getting back this amazing, overwhelming sense of peace. I knew that few things I’d done in my life were as important as what I was doing at that moment.”
This piece is an excerpt from the book Our Daily Tread: thoughts for an inspired life, edited by Dr. Lisa M. Belisle.
Copies can be purchased online from Islandport Press.
