Massage has been going well. The room is coming together. Madre Lourdes put a butterfly on the wall and lent me a CD player. Now I just need to find some good music. The CD I’ve been using skips and scratches.
One of the women I worked on this week is new. She fled her violent husband with just the clothes on her back. She didn’t even have shoes. So she’s been borrowing a pair that doesn’t quit fit. When I asked her what had happened to her feet, she told me the shoes were hurting her. She shared that she wears her clothes all week, washes them, and puts them on again as she only has one outfit.
Another woman I massaged told me she misses her two children she had to leave behind. She wanted to spend Independence Day with them. But she knows if she goes back, her husband will kill her. She can’t read or write. She was married young. What options does someone like her have? She was especially upset because celebrating holidays is her favorite thing to do with her children. For some reason, I found that her inability to do something so sweet and basic was unbearably sad.
Another woman did leave, but came back a few days later. Her husband found her in their town and gave her a solid beating. She returned immediately. It’s not safe to leave.
How can these women self actualize when they have no skills, nobody is hiring in this economy, their families have deserted them, and going back to their husbands means suicide? The only thing that keeps them going is their children.
