28.10.07

Widows

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
and that you may make the orphans your prey!

- Isaiah 10


Thursday night I visited with a couple widows in the small village of Chicoy. This woman lost her husband to bandits in Mexico. Her husband was a truck driver and was hijacked, killed, and buried. She says there is an investigation happening and that the bandits tried to sell the truck, but eventually abandoned it when it ran out of gas. This happened earlier this year.



This woman's husband was strangled by some men in a neighbouring town 5 km away five years ago. She was summoned to the Cobán hospital to identify the body. Some investigators came by shortly after and asked if she wanted the murder investigated, but she would have to pay for it - which she could not do. She lives with her 3 children and her parents. Our school has hired her as a cook and her children (6, 8, 10) attend our school too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Life just doesn't seem to be that big a deal in certain countries. I don't get it. And paying for the investigation of the murder of her husband? That is just sick.