Jitterbugging for Jesus

“They’re poor down there but they’re the happiest people in the world,” that passing acquaintance in Dallas said of Belizeans. Here a 14 y.o. Belizean boy, whose family couldn’t afford his schooling anymore, pushes his vendor cart uphill to level ground where he can pedal it on level ground a while. But he’ll push up a rocky road to get it home before dark.

This is the fifth in a seven-day series of “Noon Wine” reflections on the poor and poverty.

Lest I give too distorted a view, many Belizean people, as in any country, prosper with their businesses or professions. My landlord, for example, is in the construction business, among other businesses, and building his dream home with plans for the solar panels that are becoming hot sellers in ecology-conscious Belize these days. A neighbor lived in the U.S. for seven years where he was in mid-level management at Goldman Sachs in Miami and seldom missed a Miami Heat home game. But so many seemingly happy and gusto-filled Belizeans live with daily, uphill struggles in a country where unemployment has been stuck for 10 years at 50 percent. When you hear their stories you may realize you sometimes look at the poor and struggling people with eyes wide shut.

For Luz Garza, June 24, 1970 – June 26, 2013, R.I.P. in perfect rest, perfect peace, good man.
——-

When I was a chaplain at Baylor Medical Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland, I knew and worked with a wonderful young physician, Dr. Scott Wang.

Dr. Wang was assigned by Baylor to two faith-based clinics for the many and very many poor and working-poor residents of Garland. In an interview with old and always good Baptist Standard–which you can link to at the bottom of this posting–the devoutly Christian Dr. Wang said something that I’ve kept in my “truer words were never spoken” file. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“I am able to spend ample time with patients,” Dr. Wang said. “Because the clinics are Christian-based, I don’t have to be cautious about crossing boundaries by talking freely about spirituality. Even some non-Christians are open to my offer of praying for them.”

Wang acknowledged his surprise at experiencing the raw emotions of people who live at society’s margins.

“They don’t have as much materially to cover up their pain. They are depleted, and the emptiness is so evident,” he said. “If you say the right thing and ask the right questions, the floodgates open.”

Many of us in the largely prosperous West like to believe that many, maybe even most, of the poor are plenty happy and content with their lot in life.

Last year, when I told a passing acquaintance of mine in Dallas that I was moving to Belize, he noted that he and his wife are scuba divers and vacation at least once a year in Belize for the great diving in Belize’s famous Blue Reef. He said that one summer they vacationed an extra week, rented a vehicle and drove aimlessly all over Belize for all the inland beauty and adventure it offers.

“Those people are really poor down there,” he said, “but they’re the happiest people in the world.”

I can’t deny that there’s some truth in his assessment of happiness in Belize. If you come to see me here in the country promoted as “the Caribbean Jewel,” you’ll see a lot of gusto-filled Belizeans laughing and smiling or chilling out like they don’t have a care or worry in the world.

But you’re invited to ride with me some night from 7 to 10 on the overcrowded, cheap and bumpy “chicken buses”–or crammed into a pre-historic Toyota taxi. Notice the utter exhaustion in the faces and the slumping body language of most of those riders.

Talk to those friendly Belizean riders (but don’t wake those sleeping while sitting straight up over every jolting bump and constant stop-and-go motion) and ask them how far they have yet to walk to get to their homes and families when the bus or taxi drops them off at some dark and rocky road.

And by the way–they might be getting off the bus or out of the cab in a drenching, rainy season downpour. with their umbrella, a purse or bag, and undoubtedly with groceries or something else to tote on these steep-hill roads.

Ask some friendly rider what time he or she will have to roll out of bed to tend to feeble or disabled parents or grandparents or great-grands while getting the kids off with enough money for their bus and cab fares to get to school in their mandatory washed-and-cleaned school uniforms that require so much constant washing and drying.

And oh yeah–the school kids have to eat, and there’s precious little that is free of charge for a Belizean student.

Get up and out and about with me at 5 the next morning–rain or shine–and you’ll see Belizeans already boarding those rattle-trap taxis and chicken buses looking fresh and radiant and smiling those warm and radiant Belizean smiles.

But when it turns dark tonight–and it’s dark at 6:30 every night–come walk a local neighborhood in San Ignacio/Santa Elena with me–or better yet in one of the multitudes of Belizean villages–and you’ll see a lot of people looking like life just whipped them down today. Because it did. And if it didn’t whip them today, you can bet your vacation money that another life whipping will come around all too soon.

That passing acquaintance, whom I mentioned above, managed in his tour of Belize to see a lot happy and smiling faces. But like so many prosperous people of the world, he was looking at Belize’s people through the tunnel vision of his own prosperity.

I doubt he’d want to trade his happiness with that of “the happiest people in the world” if he looked and looked closer at them through the eyes with which Christ sees them.
———

* Here’s the link to the Baptist Standard story about Dr. Wang and featuring quotes from my other friends Dr. Steven Arze and my former boss in chaplaincy at Baylor the Rev. Mark Grace.