He works at the Chinese restaurant just a few doors down from our apartment building. It’s more accurate to say he worked. The restaurant has been closed ever since the country-wide state of emergency started on March 16.
Since leaving Venezuela last year, life has been hard. He has a 7 month old son in Venezuela that he has not seen yet but he sends money to him whenever he can. Like many Venezuelans in Peru, he knows if he does not send money his son will not eat.
Angelo, one of our residents and quickly emerging leader, received a text from Diego yesterday. He told Angelo that he’s been eating baby cereal for a few days just to keep something in his belly. Angelo gathered the guys in the building and talked with everyone about helping Diego and his family. They made the decision together as a community.
They pooled their money and gave Diego 100 soles of their money. Realistically, that won’t be enough to cover their food for the additional two weeks of quarantine that the president announced yesterday. But it is what they had.
They also went into their own cupboards and pulled together what they could to help Diego. Toilet paper, soap, rice, beans, salt and sugar. They have learned through extreme hardship how to share whatever they have.
Overwhelmed by the answered prayer and grateful for a way out of starvation, Angelo and Diego embraced right there on the street, 15 minutes before the nightly mandated curfew. Tears, love, support, understanding. That is something new.
