Help the Chavez Family weather this storm

In March of 2020, I started hearing on the regular “We are all in this together” but by late Spring many of us were awakening to the inequity that while we may be in the same storm we were sailing in totally different vessels.  Some were sailing with ice reenforced hulls, others were just trying to survive in open air exposed life rafts, and far too many were submerged and swimming in ice cold waters without any help.

When I worked on the ships people in my life would quote FDR’s “a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” mostly in response to my personal frustrations about ship life.  I would often recall their words when the captain would sail through gigantic storms and the ship would roll and toss me from side to side like a rag doll and violently pitch throwing my stomach into my pelvis.  I would think through clenched teeth “a sailor must first survive the freaking storm!”

This virus has been cruel and left no one completely untouched.  Far too many did not survive. Even as some countries begin to reopen – across this globe - so many people are still fighting and hurting and completely submerged in the storm.

I would like to introduce you to one of those people.  Pablo Chavez.

Pablo and I worked together on the ships both in the Antarctic and Arctic.  We were similar in that the ships may not have been our first choice of employment, but it was the best financial option.  We both had lives and loves we were strongly rooted in back on land but responsibilities that made the multiple months long contracts a sacrifice worthy of making.  I have spent more time with him in the last decade than I have any of my own birth family.  He is my brother from another mother.  I was extremely lucky to walk away two seasons before Pablo from our shared employer – lucky because I was able to walk away whole – fully paid out. Pablo was not. 

Before COVID19 was even on the World Health Organizations radar – so many of our ship family were already experiencing extreme financial duress because of our former employer’s inability to pay out contracts.  Many of these skilled and talented men and women worked months long contracts, 16-hour days, seven days a week, and never saw any of that income.

COVID19 changed all of our lives – for anyone working on passenger ships – the entire industry vanished almost overnight.  Even after passengers were offloaded – crew and staff were sometimes anchored offshore unable to return home for weeks and months in some cases.

Returning to any ship galley was not an option, so Pablo set out to find work elsewhere. Pablo is the very proud father of a brilliantly beautiful wee human name Santiago and providing for him is his only focus. Santiago was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa - a group of rare diseases that cause fragile, blistering skin. The blisters may appear in response to minor injury, even from heat, rubbing, scratching or adhesive tape. In severe cases, the blisters may occur inside the body, such as the lining of the mouth or the stomach.  There is no cure. Santiago has a very aggressive form of the disease and has been in the hospital for the last 79 days with a dangerous infection.  He has not tested positive for COVID19, but that is a daily fear.    

Many English-speaking countries are in a position that they are starting to safely reopen and return to whatever the “new” normal will be – but millions and millions of our brothers and sisters across the globe are not there yet.  

Pablo and Santiago both live in Argentina.

Because of COVID19 – in Argentina, the prospect of a collapse is very real. The country has been cataloging record levels of contagion—41,000 new cases in one day last week. The country of 45 million people has counted more than 3.8 million cases and nearly 80,000 deaths since the pandemic began, with a growth rate that continues to trend upward even as other countries’ rates begin to slow. In the last two weeks, it has ranked among the three countries with the highest number of deaths per capita. Around 95 percent of intensive care beds are occupied in eight of the country’s 23 provinces, according to the Argentine Intensive Care Society, with 90 percent occupied in another five jurisdictions, including the capital city. Countrywide, the government says 78 percent of its intensive care beds are full.

One of those hospital beds is currently being occupied by Pablo’s mother – Elvecia – who has been hospitalized with COVID for the last 29 days, and Pablo, just last week, lost his job. Again.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa wrote “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

This family is in a storm – the storm of their lives – and while we cannot fix so much about their circumstances we can swell up and be an ocean of love and support and maybe even provide them with enough to build a bit of a raft to get to safer shores.    
 
I am asking for your help for Pablo and his family.  Anything that you can give is enormously appreciated.
 
GoFundMe withdrawals are not available in Argentina, and there is some historical context for Argentinian’s lack of trust in their national banks.  I have asked for and been given Pablo’s consent to share this story and set up the GoFundMe in his name, but I will be the fiscal go between here in the US.  I will Western Union any funds received directly to him.
 
Hug yours a little closer.  Be kind. Look for the ripple effects.  Love fiercely and try to help where and when you can.  Helen Keller said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

We can’t make the situation whole but a whole lot of us can make it a little better.