What Would You Do

I saw a TV show by the name of "What Would You Do?" It's a sort of Candid Camera with a moral twist. The episode that I saw featured various people (one at a time) lying on the sidewalk in various stages of distress. Camera rolling to capture the Good Samaritan. Just like the bible story they captured the apathy of the passerbys. The award to the best good Samaritan went to a middle aged homeless woman who accompanied a young, appearingly drunk, man. Going so far as to get rid of the bottle so that others would have more sympathy.

I sometimes wonder if they are shooting this show in Bolivia. I see many people, usually men, laying in the street or sidewalks, some obviously drunk trying to sleep it off. Sometimes homeless taking a nap to make up for lost sleep the night before, some just teenagers. I recently had to climb over 4 teens as they tried to take a nap, out of the rain on the doorsteps of the Franciscan Social Center, it had been a holiday with no services.

One Saturday afternoon I was walking from the market place to the apartment of Clare and Nora. I was approaching the business district, when I saw a young man face down in a position that suggested something was wrong. Had he been hurt? Had he overdosed on drugs? Was he just drunk? It was right outside a fancy take out ice cream place.

In the U.S. I would know what to do, who to call. Here the "system" is very different. Or maybe I should say there really isn't much of a system. I observed a man in a nice car parked close by, he was looking at the teen, and was on his cell phone. The car (a late model) could indicate money, power, position and education (or at the least knowledge of what to do).

I felt at the moment off the hook, I felt someone was in charge. I continued walking, comtemplating how little help I could be in the situation. No phone numbers no one to call. I guess I could have stayed with him until help came, because the man obviously was not getting out of the car.

At a traffic light a block or two later, the man pulled up to the red light. A passenger was in the car and they were eating ice cream. I looked back down the street and saw no police. I have always wondered was the man actually making a call to help the teen, or just talking on the phone? Was he just a spectator? Just like I was? Should I have gone back?

I once was on my way to church when I was in language school, and I came upon the scene of an attack, that happened 30 minutes earlier. The people living in the houses nearby had come out to help. After calling for the police and waiting 10 minutes they could wait no longer for the ambulance, and had taken the person to the hospital. They stopped me to show me the scene and asked if I knew the person, since it was someone from North America. I actually did and they asked if I would go to the host family's house to inform them. At the 40 minute mark the police showed up, no ambulance.

The teen on the sidewalk was less than 3 blocks from the police station, I wonder how long it took them to show up, or if they even showed up. When I was living in the city last year, I went out in search of a missing 19 year old male one night. After roaming the streets nearby, my friend Pepe suggested we look in the bars. There is one street that has many, but to no avail. We were about to call it quits, with a last look through at a nearby plaza. As we were about to cross the street to the plaza, something told me to look up the street and cross over 1/2 block up, giving us more eyes in more places. That is where I found him passed out on the sidewalk, people walking around him. I called to Pepe and our other helper to come. We took him home, he said the next day that he had only one drink, but someone slipped something in it. (He was 15 paces from a liquor store)

Back to the premise What Would You Do?, if you were a woman, and you saw a teen face down in the street of a foreign country, where you didn't have contacts and you were still learning the culture? Is this a rhetorical question? one to think about? or one you can make a comment about in the comment section?

I wrote this post weeks ago wondering if I should actually post it. Was it too difficult to read. I sent it to various people. A couple responses were noncommittal. But two of my old friends from my first teaching days at Jubilee responded overwhelmingly positive to publish the post. They shared great reflections of how, though one many not see someone in the street, the same questions can be brought up in other circumstances. I was tempted to add them to the post.