Is that really love?

Sometimes it isn´t the long, deep conversations that impact me.  It´s the one-liners.  This time, at a workshop Peace and Hope was hosting.  Here in Bolivia, to greet others, you shake hands and kiss on one cheek.  Most North Americans aren´t used to being that close to someone you just met, and it can feel a bit uncomfortable, but you just have to kiss a stranger every once in a while.

So, during this workshop, I was standing next to my Bolivian co-workers, and after the line of greetings was over, someone leaned over to me and said jokingly, "Its ok, you can go to the bathroom and wash your face and hands now."

I threw in a sympathetic laugh to acknowledge I understood his joke, but it really got me thinking.  Have we as Americans already earned the reputation that we can swoop down to a poor, lowly country to help them "fix their problems," but we can't even be ok with touching the people we are dealing with.  His comment was half joke, and half truth.  Americans are known for not being comfortable touching the hands of the people we are serving, literally.  Why? Because they might be dirty, or smell.  

A friend going through massage school told me she was learning at the time through her classes that physical touch, one human to another can be very powerful, and sometimes we don't realize the power our touch can have on another person.  I realized, in the same way, our lack of touch can be powerful.  It is showing them we think less of them as a person.  It is de-valuing them.

It challenges me to think of those times when I feel like I am only here to "help these poor people out" but not willing to take the time to "touch" them, whether that be a handshake or a hug, or even just sitting down to listen to them.  Is that really love?