Early in the lockdown I expressed hope that the difficulties we were going through were sparking a new level of altruism. This is part of what I wrote: The most striking aspect was seeing how many others had the same idea as us. We found that the neighbors helping our efforts had done their own …
Author: strangerinaslum
My family and I write from the perspective of our lives in the slum.
Strategies collide
It was past 9pm, past curfew, shops closed and streets dark as I returned from distributing snacks to the rickshaw drivers. The only people outside were others sneaking home from "essential" tasks and small groups of men hanging out near their doors to take advantage of the cooling air. I don't remember what I first …
Another baby
The woman stopped Peregrine in the alleyway. "Save my daughter! Please, someone has to save my daughter!" Her daughter, a good friend of Peregrine's, had gone into labor that day. They had tried four different hospitals and been turned away from each one, either because of overcrowding or COVID fears or just excuses. Their fifth …
Distribution
The night streets are empty during lockdown, but I duck through back alleys to avoid checkpoints and prying questions. It's past curfew and I don't have a pass. I reach a home cobbled together from bamboo and discarded plastic and peek in a doorway. "I know times are hard for everyone, I want to help." …
Our friend Aslam
We met Aslam due to his friendship with another foreigner in our city. The two of them had collaborated and been close personal friends for perhaps a decade. From the beginning Aslam was keenly interested in our educational work in the slum and told us he'd do anything to help. Over the years as we …
The worst day of my life
Please don't read this if you are sensitive. I imagine this account will upset some of my friends. It wasn't easy for me to write. A week after her birthday party, Shakeenah came down with a stomach bug. She started vomiting even from just drinking her mother's milk or water, and by the second day …
Shakeenah’s party and Luke 14
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For …
Shakeenah rides along
A scooter jolts over a distant curb and peels off. As I hurry to see what it's fleeing, a man steps into view with an enormous red stain on his shirt. "Dear God, let that not be blood." In the minute it takes to reach him I change my mind three times on whether it's …
Take Responsibility
On April 3, the United States banned the export of personal protective gear, stating that our own supply was too important to ship out during the crisis. A few days earlier, India banned exports of essential medications including hydroxychloroquine due to manufacturing shortages. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria as well as autoimmune disorders. There …
Using force with love
Keanon Lowe, a young high school football coach, demonstrated the beauty of fighting violence with love as well as anyone I've ever seen. Lowe served as a security guard at Parkrose High School to supplement his coaching duties. One morning he was responding to a teacher's report of a missing student when 19-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz …
