tuesdays

The other week as we crouched talking to a homeless Rumanian lady sat outside the gates of one of the most visited Catholic church buildings in Sevilla and offered her some clothes to protect against the cold a man walked past to enter the church gates and said irritably, "if you're going to get in the way, take her away from here". How far is this from the heart of the one worshipped only metres away. Champion of the poor and downtrodden; arms wide open to the children, the outcasts and the broken... he did not clear places of worship of people but of money and greed. I am not claiming to be any better than the man who walked past us. I do the same. Avert my eyes, take a wide path and try to ignore those sat at the sidelines waiting hoping begging. We are shocked by the behaviour of the priest and the levite in the parable but how often do we live like the 'Good Samaritan'?



An important part of my time in Sevilla so far has been a tiny step in this direction. Once a week since October or November i was privileged to join in with a small community ('Triburbana') consisting of people from the UK, America and Spain in giving out coffee to the people who live and work on the streets in their neighbourhood with the aim of getting to know them as friends. The Macarena is at the north end of the centre of Sevilla and is less well off and more populated by immigrants than other central 'barrios'. It's right near the Alameda, which i have talked about before. I actually lived on the other side of town but given a second chance it's the area I would have liked to live in.



Every tuesday morning at 10 o'clock a few of us meet up to walk the "route of love" armed with flasks of coffee, polystyrene cups, sugar and spoons. The idea is serving a pratical need while opening up opportunities for conversation and in taking the same route each week making regular contact with people...



Like the guys from Ghana, Nigeria and other north African countries who park cars legally or illegally and speak of their past travels and future hopes and the difficulties in finding work and processing documents


the men who sit in the Alameda with bottles of beer and their precious dogs


Lola who is always in Plaza de Pulmorejos near the shelter that gives out clothing and provides showers and is so skinny no trousers fit her and often so high that she doesn't recognise us


Laura an older Rumanian lady with a beautiful smile who sits outside the renouned Macarena church with a photo album of her family including her son that died, prefers to drink Cola Cao over coffee (Spain's version of hot chocolate) and sleeps by the river


the men who sit in the park outside the parliament building and asked for pen and paper to write a letter to the governor and the newspapers about the plight of homeless unemployed Spaniards in Sevilla


Then there are those we have just met once or twice:


The Polish men sat on discarded sofas on the street drinking vodka who had journeyed through Europe in search of work and had spent the past week sleeping in the skip beside them


The Bolivian ladies, one with a newborn baby and the other who had left children aged 1 and 3 years old behind in Bolivia


Xavier the violinist and the rather chubby flamenco guitarist who told us about squats in London and Sevilla


the man in the hat who went to spend the winter in Tenerife where it's less cold to be sleeping on the street and encouraged us to relax and speak our stilting spanish slower


It makes such a difference knowing faces and names, and seeing the false ideas of status disappear.

We've met the unemployed, the drunk, the wanderers, the angry, the sick,the dirty but at the same time seen humour, kindness, openess and wisdom.

Sometimes i wander if i kept going every week just because it made me feel better about myself, stopped me feeling guilty about having so much in a world where so many are fighting just to stay alive. I hope there was more to my motivations than that. I know i always felt a bit more alive afterwards. I don't know...

So maybe we are not changing the world in dramatic ways. But maybe one cup of coffee, one smile at a time we can make a difference to someone's day. And afterall we're just living life one day at a time. We cannot promise to solve their problems, all we can do is believe that love does make a difference and pray that our humble offerings will give a glimpse of hope.