Epiphany in Peru
Dear Rudy,
I was 14, and we were living in Peru. We had arrived a month or so before,
and were visiting a Peace Corps volunteer in one of the "barriadas," or
slums, near Lima. We had a 1964 white Chevy Impala, and as we drove down the
dirt road entering the area, I was shocked by the cardboard houses, nearly
naked kids, dogs with distended stomachs. My mother said to me, "It is only
an accident of birth that you are inside this car and they are outside.
There but for the grace of God go you." It sunk in like nothing had before,
and my life changed on the spot.
Now, more than three decades later, I teach college students about other
places in the world and take them there -- to Central America, Eastern
Europe and Asia. My 3-year-old son comes from Guatemala, a place that has
seen more than its share of poverty and turmoil. I feel profoundly connected
with people around the world.
David
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