TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

To the editor:

My wife Mary, daughter Jessica, and I have recently returned from a visit to Antigua, Guatemala where, as part of the Nantucket Service Group, we participated in the God's Child Project rendering aid to that impoverished country. Together, we as a family learned a great deal about the so-called "white man's burden" and why our efforts as an advanced country have done so much ill and so little good to the "third world."

Hopefully, by painting

school rooms, visiting families, distributing clothing/food/affection, we have made, and are making, a difference.

The accompanying photo depicts a beautiful child, Maria Delores, with Jessie and me - a wonderfully active and attentive child whom, by sponsoring, we hope to rescue from an otherwise narrow future.

In recent reading about the Third World, I came upon a poignant phrase: "cultural annihilation proceeds most effectively not through physical destruction but through sexual violence...[transforming] relationships at all levels of community for [generations]." Having read this, I can understand my daughter Jessica's bonding to this beautiful child.

We would like to thank Bristol-Meyers-Squibb and Direct Relief International (medicines); Shepley Wood Products (pencils); Pacific National Bank (sundries); Allen Bell (antibiotics) - for providing us with essentials for this trip, and Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

Sincerely,

- John C. West, M.D.