Mario’s Story | part two
November 2019
Weeks later, back in the States, I was recuperating from the whirlwind trip. Filming in Africa is always completely exhausting. It’s a land that is predictably unpredictable, so I was nervous I wouldn’t get all the shots we needed. But we did. And I loved how it came out. A few people had even donated money to support the vision for the vocational center! (If you didn’t see the video yet, you can watch it here)
A few months later, Richard sent me a message that is perhaps one of my favorite texts of all time. It was a picture of Mario holding a culinary certificate.
“Mario is doing a cooking course now. That money someone sent, he wanted to pursue his dream of being a hotel chef. Or open his own restaurant. He goes every afternoon and is so excited. He openly told all of us in our Tuesday night prayer meetings that he was so thankful to God and to you and that I should personally thank you and thank your husband for what you did for him.”
Yep. My heart was turned to liquid.
I knew from the beginning that God had called me to video as a career for moments like these. It’s speaking up for those whose voice is often unheard.
I’ll be honest: I’ve gotten offtrack several times, distracted by making a certain income, wanting to be recognized, gaining more Instagram followers, getting trapped in the “more work, bigger work” cycle.
But moments like these call me back to my “why”. Being able to advocate for friends like Mario are why I feel so privileged to be able to capture and share stories in the first place.
March 2020
I sincerely wish this was the end of the story. Instead, I got a text in January 2020 from Richard:
“Hi Regan, how are you doing? Please pray for our dear brother Mario. He has serious kidney problems, they cannot do a lot for him at the hospital.”
A couple days later:
“The good news is the hospital will be able to do dialysis. The bad news is his condition is really bad. Due to his kidney failure, his heart has grown too big. Due to that Mario has been so quiet these days, very seclusive, lonely, talks less, skinny, and his legs swell too.”
The dialysis twice a week kept him alive for several months. But on April 28, Mario died.
Richard with Mario in the hospital
It’s been a struggle for me personally to process Mario’s illness and subsequent death since I heard of it.
If I’m honest, I feel the need to blame. Maybe his uncle for not taking care of him and ensuring he got his antiretrovirals. Maybe the corrupt politicians who ensure Africa has an awful medical system and its people live in poverty. Maybe the colonizers who helped set up Africa for failure in the first place.
My American heart screams at me, “This is not the way stories work!” Stories start with a struggle, a conflict. There is determination and grit, but our hero overcomes those challenges against all odds.
This is not the happy ending stories should have.
The truth is, I don’t know why Mario died so young.
And for that matter, I don’t know why Mario’s mother had to die so young died.
I don’t know why his uncle treated him so horribly.
I struggle with why us humans, just separated by distance, are given such vastly different opportunities in life.
I have a lot of questions.
But one thing I do know, is that the world is broken, out of order, and unjust. And sometimes, despite my best theological readings, it’s really hard to make sense of it all.
I truly and deeply believe that Mario is surrounded by the incredible, unfathomableIe love of God, which brings me comfort. But still - there are wrongs that need to be made right in this world that are much bigger than me or you. So in times like these, I can only lament and trust the promise that God will one day make these injustices right.
And yet, at the same time, within the chaos, in the face of global pandemics, kidney failure, poverty, and corruption, there is one simple thing we have control over: our choices.
There was nothing I could do to keep Mario alive, overcome by his organs slowly shutting down. I cannot fix Africa’s healthcare system.
But I do have what is in my hands, and along with that, a choice on how to use those things.
Where the world tends toward decay, greed, and injustice, I have the ability to use the resources in my hands for others, for justice, for good. I have a choice. That alone is a gift, and a privilege.
April 2023 - Epilogue
And so with the gift of choice and trying to do my best with whatever is in my hands, our family moves to Kenya.
We uproot our family from our home and move to another to help elevate the stories of those like Mario’s - those voices who deserve to be seen and heard. We move to provide quality medical care to others so that their life doesn’t end at nineteen years old for things that would have been totally preventable on another side of an ocean.
The crazy thing is - these choices really matter. They really make a difference. We all know that the world tends towards darkness, evil and decay - but we actually have that same power to bring life, beauty and goodness in this world.
Every day we are handed with a million choices on how to spend our energy, our time, our money, our influence. What will we pursue? We may not be able to cure world hunger, but as Mother Teresa said, “If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Our choices are an incredible opportunity to make things on earth as they are in Heaven.
Let’s look for ways to use choices today for the good of those like Mario.