Peruvian Journal: Resilience, Perseverance and Just Plain Stubbornness

Resilience, Perseverance and Just Plain Stubbornness

BY SISTER SUE SCHARFENBERGER

Estefani came to me about ten days ago. She looked too young to have a 6-year-old and a newborn. She told me that she was having trouble paying the back tuition and finding money for the next school year. I was anticipating that she needed some huge sum of money, which is frequently the case in January when back tuition has mounted over several months.

Estefani is a single mother whose own mother is a single parent, as well. Estefani lost her job at the beginning of the pandemic, but stubbornly has found work, sometimes for six weeks, sometimes for a month, sometimes only for a week. RESILIENCE.

And with the money she earns, she puts food on the table for her mother, her brother, her two children and herself. In addition, she pays the lights, water and telephone bills for the family. So, with a minimum wage salary, there was nothing left for tuition.

When we met, I discovered that her back tuition only amounted to over a month’s worth and added to that was the inscription for the next school year. In addition, she had put aside almost all that she needed to pay off the debt. I wanted to help. This young woman was serious about her responsibilities and creative in looking for solutions. STUBBORNNESS.

But I asked her if she would be able to continue paying tuition in the coming year. Her answer revealed a whole new reality. Her brother, who is 22, had just started to work. It was his first job. She had been upset with him for years when it never occurred to him to get out and work in order to help the family. Now that he was working, he had more enthusiasm, interest in other things, and felt happy to be able to help the family.

So, with the brother’s help, Estefani would be able to continue to send her 6-year-old to Saint Angela Merici School.

The “help” I could give to Estefani came from the generous support of our many donors over the years. What was different about Estefani’s story was that she immediately told me that she would “pay it back” (or is it “pay it forward”) so that we could continue to help other people.

Each story is unique, yet there are common threads: Beatriz, Maria,

Connie. They all have been incredibly “down,” especially in this time of the pandemic— out of work, medical bills, funeral expenses, separations, divorce, children with lockdown fever, lack of adequate devices for internet, etc.

Resilience and perseverance, and maybe a little bit of stubbornness.

The same is true of the fishermen who lost their livelihood when thousands of barrels of petroleum landed in the Pacific Ocean, just a little north of here. Rather than sitting back and lamenting the huge loss, not only to their livelihood, but also to all the ocean life for miles north and south, they immediately began entering the waters to save whatever ocean life they could pull out from the seas.

The pictures were horrible. Birds, sea animals and fish, covered with oil, which the local fisherpersons tenderly cared for while trying to save their lives.

That is what resilience is about. Stubbornly saving lives. Saving the planet: wildlife, villages, farmers, waters, land, air. It is where the cry of the poor is heard and where resilient creativity brings people together to do what is good and life-giving, and lifesaving. And when you’ve done what you think you can, you cast your nets once again into the oceans of poverty and illness, inequalities and prejudices, human and natural disasters to be lifesavers. Really.

Resilience, perseverance, and maybe a little bit of stubbornness.