Before Sacha came home from California we had found him a job at a construction site in the center of Marseille. French Husband and I told him we wanted him to taste gulp hard labor. We knew the one hour bus ride at six-forty in the morning would be the icing on the cake, and the heat of August the cherry on top. We congratulated ourselves knowing that his "experience", working at a construction site, before going away to college would show him what it meant to work, and by getting dirty as something that builds character.
What we didn't expect was that he would like it. Let alone learn more than the valuable lesson of sweating back breaking work, in a culture of fast food and an easy buck.
Sacha works at the construction site with young Muslim men who are practicing Ramadan: The Islamic month of fasting, refrain from drinking any fluids and intimacy during daylight hours (sunrise to sunset). Ramadan is intended to remind the faithful about patience, spirituality, humility and faith while enduring sacrifice.
Imagine hot, dusty manual labor in a construction site during the month of Ramadan, and not eating, nor drinking. Sacha said, "On our lunch break we walked over to the snack shop. On the way there I felt people looking at Muslim men and I, judging us… snickering behind our backs: Raw prejudice, as if we were uneducated second class citizens. I was shocked. Nobody has ever looked at me like that before. When we walked in to the snack shop I ordered a drink and something to eat. But they did not, though they sat by me. I could barely eat I felt so guilty. Though it wasn't their intent to make me feel this way, we were together to share company. I told them I felt odd eating in front of them, they smiled and said not to worry about it."
Last night when Sacha came home we were ready to hear the tales of his job, anticipating his contagious excitement. But when he walked in when saw something different written on his face, and wonder what happened. He told us that while he was lowering a stack of cinder blocks the cord broke releasing the cinder blocks towards the men below. He said, "God, mom I thought to myself those cinder blocks are going to kill them, and I screamed in terror, and could not go down to see what happened. I was terrified!"
The men below moved quickly when they heard Sacha scream, though one young man's back was scraped by the cinder blocks as he barely had time to move away. Sacha said, "Mom, the guys didn't yell, nor swear, nor react in any way negative towards me, instead they reassured me that accidents happen, and that it wasn't my fault. I expected them to be mad, or at least the guy who's back got scraped to react in pain and therefore anger, but he did not! Instead they consoled me."
As Sacha talked I could see his admiration for these young men building. That the lessons of their patience, faith, humility, and actions were leading him in a way I never imagined possible at a construction site. The lesson of hard labor have become the lessons of loving kindness.
Notes……………………
Thank you for your overwhelming response yesterday, for encouraging me to be myself, and at the same time affirming me that by putting my better self in front is just as honest and good as reading between the lines. Thank you also for sharing your thoughts with me and the readers of Tongue in Cheek, your comments make this blog a richer place.
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