Quaker Life

In Gibara in the early 1900s there lived a young woman named Maria Luisa Cuesta. When she heard that there were Americans who had arrived in Cuba and wanted to begin a mission, she was curious and attended their first meeting for worship. When she shared those memories much later, she recalled that the group that first met was small. Eventually she married and had a daughter, Margarita Soler Cuesta, and raised her in the Friends Church in Gibara. That daughter also got married and had a daughter, Maria Margarita Aguilar Soler, and that daughter did the same, though she had three children: Mariluz Zaldivar Aguilar, Daniel Saldivar Aguilar, and Elio David Zaldivar Aguila. The last, David, is a Cuban Quaker who now lives in Richmond, Indiana.

It was late Friday morning in Kenya, and we were building our fifth mud home with Friends Bringing Hope. By this time, we were familiar with the daily routine. Our work team of six from the U.S. would share a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, sweet bananas, and tea masala with Milly, our live-in Kenyan f/Friend who took care of our bellies and our dirty laundry. She taught us to cook chapati, answered our cultural questions, and brightened our days with her beautiful smile. She also ran off in the evenings to attend to the family of a friend whose adult son died during the early days of our trip, but Milly was always back for breakfast.

I want to tell you a story that happened many years ago, as recently as today, and will happen again tomorrow. It is a story about a deceptively familiar place where securing the basic necessities of life, health care, housing, transportation, and communication requires persistence to overcome one obstacle after another.

There is no doubt that a great deal of what passes for Quakerism today is highly discouraging. There are a few bright spots, but the general picture is far from satisfactory. The two alternatives for which we have been willing to settle are both bad, and there is no real hope except as we are willing to face the situation with candor. It is a time for plain speech.