maybe don't read this if you want to be uplifted...

A classmate involved with a social justice group at her church asked me to come and talk about my experiences with WIC, to put a human face on important government programs. Afterwards I realized it was much more difficult than I thought it would be, because I had to think of stories that were positive--like the boy whose hemoglobin was so low, his drop of blood was actually clearish. If we hadn't caught the low hemoglobin, it wouldn't have gotten caught for months, most likely. WIC was very beneficial in that case. 

But most of what I could think of was not good. I never realized what a toll it took on me, everyday. There was the pregnant teenager who was in tears; besides being away from her home country and struggling to get by financially (a tragedy almost everyone I saw bore), her boyfriend left her for another woman before she found out about the pregnancy. When she told him about it, he said she was a slut and it was from another man (of course he was the slutty one). And he wouldn't help out at all, and worse, she was heartbroken. 

There was the very high domestic abuse rate I suspected but rarely able to confirm. Sometimes women would tell me about someone else they knew. Or they would assure me that their husband didn't drink, or was peaceful when he drank (the assumption being, most men get violent when they drink, that's normal).

And the woman given TB meds after her baby was born. This made her birth control ineffective and she got pregnant 1 month after giving birth. She hadn't been planning on more babies and quite frankly, couldn't afford it. She didn't abort but was angry about the pregnancy for some time--how must that affect the baby's psyche!? Financially it was very difficult for them. Turns out some intern made the mistake and the pharmacist didn't catch it.

Also there was a woman whose husband was out of work for months. He was working on their car and was brutally attacked, he nearly died--so someone could steal the car.  A neighbor, who knew this man (he was very kind and generous so well-known in the neighborhood) found him bleeding... The car had had their WIC folder in it; she came in to get it replaced.

Also the woman who had miscarried and was afraid of miscarrying again--that was many women, actually. All the women with small children in their home country, who missed them so badly they couldn't talk about. Women whose husbands were deported. The parents who had health problems but were uninsured, or went hungry so their children could eat. A few women came in beat-up--attacked while coming home late, from their cleaning jobs (often hotel). One woman was a domestic, though. She said she ran into the door! The door! That's the classic domestic abuse cover, I couldn't believe it; "La puerta? Esta segura?" I asked. Yes, she was sure. I run into doors all the time and have never gotten a black eye from it.

My god, there are so many more stories. They are treated so badly I can't stand it. I want all the women to go home, stand up to their husbands, and leave this country and economy in a huge mess. We depend on their slave labor and if they stopped coming, that would be great, and the joke would be on us. I am so thrilled about this recession. We will suffer the most and they will suffer the least, because they know how to do things like make shelter and grow food (most were driven off their land; from ranches or whatever. That's why they seem so uneducated to us).