Relating to the Poor Has Changed my Life

?Through humble prayer and through contemplation of Jesus in His poverty, both in the Gospels and in the poor of today?s world, we learn to open our hearts to the needy, to be at their service?We discover what they teach us about the Gospel and we recognize in them the face of the suffering Christ.? Constitutions # 55

This is the passage from the Constitutions which is for me the reality of each day in my work at the dispensary where I come in contact with so much physical and moral suffering, fighting for life, resignation?but also with love, trust and reference to God.

From seven in the morning to noon we come in contact with more than 200 people: babies, children, the young and the old, men and women.  Each one of them is in a hurry and wants to be listened to and loved.  This is the most important thing for them, because in Egypt there are so many people that it is difficult to be attentive to each one.  In Dairout, as in the rest of the country, people look for honesty and hope to be treated at a fair price, because these people do not have very much money. Medications sold by many of the multinational firms that have established themselves in Egypt are very expensive, far beyond reach for the poor.  But there are less costly medications that are made locally, and these are the ones we use.  We also make ointments and collyrium that are less expensive.

Because of the prevalence of trachoma, an eye disease that can lead to blindness and that is caused by dirt and by the multitude of flies, we offer special treatment of eye diseases.  A few years ago while I was caring for an old lady who was almost blind, she said to me, ?I ask for only one small ray of light that I might find my way around; I ask for nothing more?? This sentence has remained deeply etched within me up to now, and I often pray with it.

Many burn victims also come to the dispensary.  Women cook and make tea over gas grills right on the floor, and children spill the hot contents on themselves while playing.  We do some prevention work for this, and it is beginning to bear fruit.  But the most painful are the women who ?give themselves fire.?  They burn themselves when they can no longer bear life.  This is often caused by their mothers-in-law who make life impossible for them.  Each married son lives in the family home; each couple has only one room.  The mother-in-law runs the household and controls the money.  Or else the husbands keep the money for themselves and these poor women have nothing with which to buy food for their children.

Several months ago a poor woman was brought to me.  She was almost totally burned and she later died after much suffering.  She had been married at age 14.  Her marriage was arranged as her mother was deceased and her father was remarried to a woman who did not want to live with the children of his first wife.  This poor girl?s husband was old and drank and he beat her every day.  Unable to stand it and to return to her father?s house, she found the only solution: to ?give herself fire.? And to think that these people were Christians?

Skin diseases are very common due to malnutrition.  They are also caused by unsanitary conditions as well as by contact with animals, as so often people and animals sleep in the same place for lack of space.  There is another reason why Muslim women come to the dispensary for treatment: as soon as they see the slightest mark on their skin, they live in fear that their husbands will use this excuse to get a divorce.  One of them said to me one day, ?You Christian women are lucky because your husbands don?t divorce you.?

There is still much more to be said.  But it is in living this reality, in receiving and in giving, that one comes to understand many things.

And throughout all of this we find poor people who are joy-filled even in their suffering, grateful and trusting, and who live Gospel values, often without being aware of this.

Through our nursing we do not forget that we are educators, that our call is to educate.  We try to do this in our contact with each person. 

This relationship with the poor has changed my life, and I am grateful to the Society for having allowed me to live this mission. 

Hedwige de Cadolle rscj
Province of Egypt