{"id":204,"date":"2011-10-19T15:27:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T22:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/?p=204"},"modified":"2011-10-19T15:27:55","modified_gmt":"2011-10-19T22:27:55","slug":"sisters-of-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/?p=204","title":{"rendered":"Sisters of Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c…Oh the Sisters of mercy<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

They have not departed or gone…\u201d Leonard Cohen, songwriter\/poet<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Last week I saw one of the comedor nuns lean out of the door and hand a plate piled high with beans and rice, vegetables and tortillas, and a huge glass of milk to \u201cburn man\u201d, a homeless Mexican man severely burned a few months ago with battery acid. (see my first posting for this story) He sits down on the curb and eats every crumb.\u00a0 Leonard Cohen’s song from the 60’s once again runs through my mind. These women are the Sisters of Mercy. Their presence lights up this very humble shelter. I don’t notice the ripped tarp on the walls, the discarded plastic bottles in the street, or the infamous huge monolithic \u201cWall\u201d separating Mexico from the USA. I just see their smiles and their brightly flowered aprons. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

....They were waiting for me, when I thought that I just can't go on...." Leonard Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBurn man\u201d gratefully accepts the food. He is mentally ill, I’m told, and can be disruptive and aggressive. For reasons I don’t understand, he has been temporarily barred from the comedor, the dining area.\u00a0 Rules are rules.\u00a0 Burn man is a survivor and lives on the street, sleeping in the cemetery. He is not a migrant, but lives in Nogales, Sonora, and is a victim of thugs and evil. Today he wears two pairs of pants tied around his waist with rope and a filthy jacket. When he sees our group he approaches, asking for money for a Coke. And then one of the Sisters appears with a big glass of milk. And that steaming plate of food.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me say something here. I did not think this man would survive a few weeks ago. His burns covered his back, and he walked around with a cloud of insects and flies following him. You could smell the infection. Nurse Norma, the Mexican RN at the clinica, has been cleaning this man’s wounds and applying clean dressings several times during the week. She and her medic assistant, Jacobo, have been disciplined and loving in their care of this man. Today his back is healing, and there is no infection. And the Sisters of Mercy feed him two meals a day. It is a miracle. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Welcome to America....and our wall<\/p><\/div>\n

And \u201c burn man\u201d trusts us. Well, trusts us enough to ask for money for a Coke and cigarettes. And a clean blue shirt, his favorite color. I rummage through the pile of clothes and find an almost new Patagonia shirt. We all smile as we see \u201cburn man\u201d put on this symbol of the yuppie trekker. Fits him perfectly too. <\/span><\/p>\n

I have to grin when I think of the poetic justice of \u201cburn man\u201d sporting a Patagonia shirt. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Last Supper, Mexican style<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201c…Oh the Sisters of mercy They have not departed or gone…\u201d Leonard Cohen, songwriter\/poet Last week I saw one of the comedor nuns lean out of the door and hand a plate piled high with beans and rice, vegetables and tortillas, and a huge glass of milk to \u201cburn man\u201d, a homeless Mexican man severely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.arroya.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}