Whitehall man sees world from different perspective

When he lived in Whitehall in Washington County, Matthew Putorti, 22, read articles about the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, half a world away. Now he lives in Sudan and hears about the violence from boys who have experienced it.

One teen fled from his burning home. Another saw two young cousins killed and ran with their corpses to a displacement camp. Some can show scars from shrapnel. They all wonder where their parents are.

Those teens are "my friends," said Mr. Putorti in an e-mail interview with The Evangelist. "They reminded me how different the past four years of their lives have been from mine. I was having a great collegiate experience; they were running from militias trying to kill them."

Firsthand knowledge

For the past year, Mr. Putorti, a parishioner of Our Lady of Hope Church in Whitehall, has served as a volunteer in a Rwandan orphanage, and as a teacher and boarding-house manager at a Sudanese technical school for boys.

Just a year ago, he was working on his senior thesis at Boston College about sovereignty issues in Sudan.

"I never would have imagined that today I would be sitting in Sudan, asking young men from Darfur what has happened to them over the past four years," he said.

Love in action

After college, answering what he calls "faith's challenge to put love into action," Mr. Putorti decided to spend two years doing volunteer work and community service: one year outside of the U.S. and one inside.

Rev. David LeFort, pastor of Our Lady of Hope, recommended a Catholic organization so he could practice his faith while overseas. VIDES (Volunteers International for Development Education Services), operated by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters), fit the bill.

"Choosing to do work internationally does not deny that poverty exists in the United States," Mr. Putorti explained. "Rather, it highlights that the poverty in many places of the underdeveloped world is more entrenched and widespread, while infrastructure and good governance do not exist to bring people out of poverty."

Rwanda

Once in Africa, Mr. Putorti spent his first month in Rwanda, a country still reeling from the ramifications of genocide a decade ago.

He washed dishes and did support labor at a girls' orphanage, and started the Banana Fund, a fundraising effort to supplement the diet of children at the Salesian missions.

"More than anything, [the orphans] wanted only to be loved in return, to be paid attention to and affirmed that, yes, they have self-worth," he said.

Sudan

In Sudan, Mr. Putorti works with young men, 16 to 22, who are attending a Salesian-run technical training school located in El Obeid. One of the larger cities of Sudan, it has spotty electricity, dirt roads and a high population of people displaced from Darfur.

He teaches English at the school; is the administrator, "problem-solver" and counselor at three boarding houses; and takes care of students' other needs.

He also writes grants and tries to raise funds to purchase books in English for the school, while not forgetting Rwanda's needs. For that nation, he is trying to raise money to buy solar panels for the mission children and increase the Banana Fund.

Darfur

The Sudanese school includes 178 teenagers from the Darfur region, boys from the rural Nuba Mountains and street children.

Many of those from Darfur -- who are now studying auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, English and math -- describe life in the internment camps as crowded, disease-ridden and unsanitary.

Many have told Mr. Putorti stories of running for their lives from Janjaweed militias, watching relatives be tortured and die, and not knowing if their parents were alive or dead.

Emotions

Mr. Putorti said he has "tried to remain professional and unemotional" during the interviews, which he is collecting for the school's library.

Later, when alone, he admitted that he "was not able to contain my emotions anymore. I remain puzzled how the boys can carry on with their lives as if nothing happened. If you met them without hearing their stories, you would think they were typical teenagers who smile, who sometimes cause problems, who generally enjoy life.

"I'm impressed by their ability to deny self-pity and actively seek a better life, but I'm also concerned that they are not properly dealing with the tragedies in their lives."

Poles apart

Mr. Putorti finds himself struggling between two opposite poles in his life: to be "successful" as opposed to "serving humanity," between the western idea of financial achievement and status, and what he's experienced and achieved in Sudan.

He will come back to the United States in July to spend the summer in Whitehall before leaving to volunteer with AmeriCorps. Law school, he says, may be in his future, but he has no set plans.

One thing is for certain, he declared: "I have come to a better recognition that God's love manifests itself in unique ways in my daily life, that things do not happen simply because of 'luck' but because God chose them to happen as such.

"I do not pretend that my spiritual journey is complete and that I do not still have struggles with my faith, but I am more open to the possibility of God working in even the smallest ways of my life."

Changed man

Mr. Putorti said it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what has changed about him in the seven months he's been in Africa. He notices a greater tendency towards independence, reflection, patience and flexibility.

"I hope that my experience in Sudan will bring awareness to the situation in Darfur, because now some people have a personal connection to a region of the world that is far removed from their daily lives," he said. "This experience will forever make me conscious of the decisions I make and the life I lead.

"A friend of mine once told me, 'Once you see, you can never unsee.'"

(To support VIDES' work in Sudan and Mr. Putorti's Banana Fund, send a check to Sister Mary Gloria Mar, 5630 W. Commerce Street, San Antonio, TX 78237. Mr. Putorti recommends that people read more about Darfur and write to governmental leaders asking them to stop the violence. He also recommends "prayer.")

(4/19/07) [[In-content Ad]]