‘A World Where People Are Afraid of Receiving Help From a Stranger’ · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

From Bolivia, El rincón de tu camarada Pepe (The hideout of your pal Pepe) shares what happened [es] to him one day when he saw a guy walking among the cars who “looked homeless, as he talks to a driver, the driver closes the window and looks terrified” and about his own reaction at the moment:
¿Qué puede estar haciendo ese viejo? ¿Será que está ofreciendo droga? O tal vez peor!!! Está ofreciendo órganos!!! No… está vendiendo a sus hijos!!! Bueno no, no veo niños, aunque veo una bolsa…tal vez están en esa bolsa!!
What can this guy be doing? Is he selling drugs? Or even worse!!! He is selling organs!!! No… he is selling his children!!! Well, no, I don't see children, although I see a bag… maybe they are in that bag!!
Then the blogger realizes he is thinking in prejudices, when the alleged homeless tells him:
“Estoy acá tratando de ayudar a la gente, pero todos parecen locos y huyen de mí […]”. (Dice que) despertó con las intenciones de hacer algo bueno con su vida, ayudar a las demás personas, esa bolsa que vi, donde tontamente pensé que traía restos de personas, era las pocas cosas que poseía y que estaba regalando para ver si podía ayudar a las demás personas […]. No puedo evitar sentirme triste por vivir en un mundo en el que la gente tiene miedo a recibir ayuda de un extraño, miedo a que alguien sea una terrible persona, miedo a acercarse a otro ser humano, ¿tanto nos hemos condicionado en este mundo que no podemos dejar de tener miedo de nosotros mismos como semejantes?
“Here I am trying to help people, but everybody reacts crazily and run away from me […]” (He says he) woke up with the intention of doing something good out of his life, help other people. That bag I saw where, silly me, I thought he carried human remains, contained the few things he had and was giving away to see if he could help other people […] I can't help but feeling sad for living in a world where people are afraid of receiving help from a stranger, fear that someone is a terrible individual, fear approaching another human being, are we that conditioned that we can't avoid being afraid of ourselves as our fellow man?