A Shower of Surprises, a Shower of Love
Swami always brings wonderful surprises and blessings that aren’t expected. So it was, in the month of February, at the snack area called “A Pulmón” (this term means when something is done with great effort) in the Malvinas neighbourhood in San Salvador de Jujuy city, located in a northern province of Argentina, near Bolivia.
The first surprise occurred when the children of the snack area received a pleasant visit from a young lady-devotee, who was visiting the city, and her nine-year-old goddaughter who accompanied her. They set out to help another young lady-devotee who assists in the snack area regularly. Thus, godmother and goddaughter helped with the preparation and distribution of the snack while the other lady-devotee conducted an English class to a group of smiling girls, eager to learn.
The second surprise came when, all of a sudden, a heavy rain fell upon the area, forcing all the children, devotees and ladies who were helping, to leave the road where they had installed the planks to serve the snack. Everybody, young and old, helped in lifting up the planks, pots, tea jars, rice pudding, bread and cookies and took them to the humble house of Delia, the woman in charge of the snack area.
Thus, everybody found shelter under a metal roof and waited for the rain to stop so that they could take everything out again and continue their activity. Meanwhile, the English class was continued in the house. There was very limited space but the girls were eager to learn all the colours of the rainbow anyway! After a while, the heavy rain continued to pour abundantly, even starting some floods. The three lady-devotees decided to go home.
Delia and her son got soaked in the rain while they waited to stop the bus when it came, so that the three young devotees could undertake their return journey. It was definitely more than a shower of surprises, it was a shower of love!
Meanwhile, in the City of Buenos Aires, a group of youth continued their project of serving breakfast to the homeless on Sundays. The breakfast included coffee and juice with croissants and cookies. In addition to breakfast, the youth distributed fruits and packets of soup for them to eat later. They also provided clothes and footwear for children and adults. Everything that the youth offer on Sundays comes from donations that they gather during the week. Not only do the donations come from the youth but from people who are interested in helping as well. In February, a hygiene kit was included with a towel, soap, shampoo and hair conditioner.
The aim of the project is to provide the homeless necessary food to take advantage of the day; because sometimes they are still sleeping in when the youth offer them breakfast. However, they wake them up with a complete breakfast so that they can carry out their activities. Approximately 120 people received breakfast together with a hygiene kit and clothes.