Traveling with Ray Owens

Today we walked to the Matt and Michelle’s house and arrived at about 10:00.   We had a very nice discussion about how to love our neighbors.  We heard the parable (which is based on very real stories of mission activities) which I will try to summarize.

There was once a small village of people that lived on the top of a very steep mountain.  They had to come down the treacherous trail on many occasions to trade with the people who lived at the foot of the mountain.  It happened regularly that someone would stumble and fall down the mountain side and often be severely injured.

A church group of missionaries found out that this was happening and raised money to purchase an ambulance service located at the village at the foot of the mountain.  But the Missionaries did not stay in the village and when the ambulance broke down the villagers had no means of getting it fixed.   The mountain people continue to fall and then die because there was no way to get them to the nearest hospital for treatment.

When the missionaries returned several years later they found this situation and their solution was to raise money and build a medical clinic and hire doctors and nurses to staff it at the bottom of the mountain.  This worked until the funds dried up and the doctors and nurses found other jobs and the clinic was closed.  

The mountain village people got together to talk about what to do.  One man spoke up and said that he had a possible plan way back before the ambulance was purchased but no one asked him?   This plan was told to the missionaries and they offered to help by purchasing concrete to set the fence posts in.   The villagers were able to cut and use the abundant trees growing on their mountain to be used as fence posts.   The fence was erected on the edge of the mountain pass.   A committee of villagers were selected who checked the fence and posts each year to see if they needed to have posts replace which was an easy task for the villagers.  Since the fence was built no one has fallen down the mountain side.

The moral of the story:  If you want to help a group you might want to start with talking to them rather than imposing your solutions on the perceived problems.

We divided into two groups and then walked the community there in Sant Cugat and we took notes of the strengths and assets we saw in the area.   We saw lots of things that a casual observe might not notice.  There were two cultural centers in the area, schools, music schools, lots of green spaces for families, a couple of washaterias, city offices where social services could be obtained, medical facilities and many other things where help and service could be provided.

As we walked to lunch our wonderful leaders told us many things about Sant Cugat and its history.

We then went to lunch together at a very traditional Catalon family restaurants.  A small restaurant with one very nice lady who was the only server, one man who was doing a variety of things and we were told that there was one person doing the cooking in the kitchen.   The menu was small.   There was a starter course with 3-4 options, a main course also with 3-4 options and about 3 options for the dessert menu.   I chose for the starter course the Garbanzo and chorizo first course.   This was a slow cooked soup or stew with chickpeas and mild sausage.   It was delicious.  The second course I chose the Meatballs in tomato-based sauce and French fries.   It was very good.   The dissert course I chose was described incorrectly to me to be cottage cheese with honey on top.   The cheese turned out to be the consistency of cheesecake without the cake and no sugar.   A mild cheese with very little taste.   The honey on top was a blessing.

After lunch we discussed the morning findings and then the ladies went to the Mamaventura meeting that I think I called Mama and Me in an earlier post.   The women that come are often from abusive homes and so the men did not to attend in case it made them feel uncomfortable.  Instead, we were escorted by Matt to the Sant Cugat museum which is located in the restored Benedictine Monastery.   It is a delightful museum which we had virtually to ourselves.   The chapel is next to the museum and when I went in there was a organist practicing.

The men then went to a coffee shop on the square and sat and told stories of our parents and grandparents who had passed away.   Cole received word earlier in the day that his grandmother had died.   Cole said he was essentially raised by his grandma.   We had a nice conversation.

The three couples decided to stay on the square and have dinner.   I opted to have a very good gelato and walk to the hotel.   And here I am.

A good day.