3.06.2007
A New American
Three and a half hours ago I was walking a first-timer through the steps of getting online at the library. He was a new American, from Africa, about thirty, with confident limited English.
I was standing at his elbow as he typed the access number and I noticed his hands. Hands that had been tortured. Joints distorted, digits askew, both hands, systematic slow painful injury. I noticed but put the information away, and it surfaced twenty minutes ago in the grocery store. Torture. What a horrible thing, what a far-away thing, and just today I was working with someone who survived it.
I talked to Amigos de Sobrevivientes and thought about volunteering with them when I lived in Eugene; I thought of them tonight. No working website tho, I just found directory entries and broken links. Looking for them, I found these guys: The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).
I'm going back there just after I hit the publish button, I need to learn something, put together a way to think about this.
I was standing at his elbow as he typed the access number and I noticed his hands. Hands that had been tortured. Joints distorted, digits askew, both hands, systematic slow painful injury. I noticed but put the information away, and it surfaced twenty minutes ago in the grocery store. Torture. What a horrible thing, what a far-away thing, and just today I was working with someone who survived it.
I talked to Amigos de Sobrevivientes and thought about volunteering with them when I lived in Eugene; I thought of them tonight. No working website tho, I just found directory entries and broken links. Looking for them, I found these guys: The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).
I'm going back there just after I hit the publish button, I need to learn something, put together a way to think about this.
