Somewhere over the rainbow

Today I saw the most beautiful and complete rainbow I have ever seen. It was while i was walking home from the bus stop that this perfectly arched rainbow graced my presence as it stood proudly before the strong, tropical, mist covered mountains that make the skyline of La Ceiba. So beautiful was it that I had to stop and take a deep breath in just to truly appreciate the beauty that was in that moment.

Todays rainbow wasn´t the only thing that stopped me in my tracks this week. Early this week as I was running to the beach, down the main avenue of La Ceiba past the fast food chains, spanish school, the prominent Catholic church in the city center, street vendors, markets, and obvious stares when I was taken aback to see a young boy sleeping on the street curb. Shirt pulled up to reveal his entirely visible rib cage I couldn´t help but stop to take a glimpse into an unfair world.

With nothing whatsoever on hand to give, no hope to offer, I continued to run past the boy with my mind winning the race. A repetitive quesition of why and an unknown answer, except for the unfortunate one, the fact that we all hate. The fact that the world is an unfair place where we can´t always help everyone...even the children that never had a chance. And this is what hurts and haunts me the most because each and every single child deserves a chance at life, a good life and this is something that the world should offer. R u n n i n g on still I crossed paths with two other street children where I stopped to give one child a hug. His name is Marvin. I had met nine year old Marvin just the other day on the beach when a man from the States with an extremely giving heart introduced Marvin to me and my friends.

This man inspired me so much to keep on giving in life, to give even more of myself. He struck me where it counts. He was a Christian man that decided he wanted to go out in the world and live his spirituality out by making beautiful changes through positive actions as apposed to thumping a bible on someones head. He has been doing life giving work by getting street children off of the streets and into the schools, giving them a chance at a better life with hope for a better future. As he spoke with us he had his arm around the sweet boy the whole time, telling us of how 9 year old Marvin had been on the streets since he was just 7 years old and how he needs so much love. Unfortunately a sad reality is that as humans we easily become so desensitized to the dispair around us. I have witnessed street child after street child coming up to me on a struggling search for meals everyday and often I turn them away forgetting that sometimes just sitting down to talk with a child and show them you care is just as important as giving them your dollar. I was so impressed with this man as he told me of how when the resort staff had tried to shoe the boy away he told them no and to let the boy come to him. This took me to a story in the bible where Jesus let the children come to him even when everyone tried to scare them off from ¨bothering¨ him. Jesus knew and believed that childern have so much to teach us and that they are our future therefore we need to care for them and here their voice. Most people would have been so relieved to have a matter like that ¨taken care of¨ but instead this kind man showed a love like that of Jesus, opening his heart to a disregarded child.

And so after stopping to give Marvin a hug and again nothing to give but my friendship I continued to run down to the beach, happy to have created a kinship with the boy but so very frustrated that he was born into such an unfair life situation that very well anyone of us could have been born into aswell. Breathlessly stepping onto the warm sand at the edge of La Ceiba I took to a sun chair to live out my privledged life style. Laying down looking out at the setting sun riding on the back of the content sea before me, I held back the tears that finish the end of this story.