Salta: love revealed in a cup of tea

About halfway through my first week on project, Marily and I were teamed up to walk around Finca Montserrat to let the residents of this beautiful corner of the earth know all the events we would be doing for the rest of the week: playing with the kids, showing the Jesus Film and giving out clothing and food donations.

The first house we went to that day was the home of Santos. She was born on All Saints Day, so they named her Saints. Her 12 year old daughter, Lorena, lives with her. They are taking care of Santos’ mother who is very old and very sick, who does not want medical help, who wants to die in the house that she has lived in almost her whole life. These days, she is not eating and is barely drinking. Santos and Lorena are loving on her and helping her as much as they can. But at this point, they are watching this woman, once a plump and sweet grape, shrivel up to the tiniest raisin as she sits on the porch, sleeping in the sun, each and everyday.

Santos and Lorena both accepted Christ. Santos’ face lit up as she listened about how much God loves her and that though she may feel alone that He will always be with her and that He is always there listening to her. And she knows that it is true. Looking at the perfectly blue sky and the rocks and mountains that envelop her home confirms it.

As we are leaving, Santos invites us to come for tea the next afternoon. We accepted.

We sat on their porch for almost 2 hours, talking and laughing.

In this conversation, we learned about her mother and how difficult it is for them to care for her and yet how they want to honor her wishes. We learned that since Santos doesn’t have a job, she gets 180 pesos a month. But she has to go to Salta to get the money. The bus to Salta costs about 80 pesos. You do the math.

But, we also learned that Lorena wants to be a secretary by day and a singer at night. We asked her to sing for us and she just giggled and giggled. So Marily set the scene: a huge audience all screaming “Lorena! Lorena!” The guitar player starts strumming the opening chords. And all that comes out of Lorena’s mouth is that timid giggle.

Santos begins to laugh. And soon we are all laughing and we can’t stop. For a moment they can’t smell that the mother has gone to the bathroom on herself again and they can’t see all that they need. They just take hold of the moment and hope in the future.

And then Lorena sang for us. And Santos, who also loves to sing, joined in.

I’m not sure I’ll ever drink tea again without thinking of them.