Unconditional Love

i have started reading this magazine called colors magazine.
i think its a great magazine. one which, coincidentally, has
plenty of stories of love. an ad in its 46 issue, an old issue the volunteer issue, reads: 2001 International Year of Volunteers

name: naya joffre
nationality: swiss
volunteer working with Guatemalan street children

the ad also bears the logo of united nations or UN. i smiled. it reminded me of this other ad i saw in a advertising magazine. it showed an overturned tortoise that has a UN helmet as its shell. the copy says: UNable i thought that was really smart, but for a wrong reason. it must have been some creative people who are rather UNhappy with the UN. anyhow, back to the volunteers issue of colors magazine, this one got me thinking about love...

My life is a disgrace. I am like a clown,
laughing on the outside and crying inside.

Nelson Gomez, volunteer sex educator, Guatemala

01 When Nelson Gomez, 22, dressed a woman, he becomes Melissa Simpson. "During the day I'm an auxiliary in an accounting firm. In the evenings I'm a transvestite sex worker - but not Friday or Saturday. Those nights I work as a volunteer. We go out in a car to distribute condoms and educate other prostitutes - or anyone who wants to listen - about AIDS prevention and sexual health. There's a lot of discrimination against the gay population here, mainly because they think we brought AIDS to Guatemala. They shout at us,'Maricona Sidosa' [ AIDS carrying faggot]. Sometimes people just come up and hit us - even kids - or throw bad eggs or plastic bags full of excrement. They say that we're sinners. My uncle couldn't handle my being gay and
threatened to kill me. So I left home when I was 15 and started working the streets. I never had access to information about AIDS and stuff. Now I want to help those young people who are sexually active. This is the help I am giving to Guatemala. My dreams were killed when I was a kid. Nothing is beautiful in my life. I work as a prostitute to help my family. I can make between [US]$6 and $60 a night and I send that money to my grandma who has cancer and to my mum who is ill. My life is a disgrace. I am like a clown, laughing on the outside and crying inside. Sometimes I feel so fed up with life. My one hope is that my mother and grandmother don't die. What makes me laugh?
Myself and my suffering. My best friend Astra and I, we laugh at out problems together"this is just the first of the stories that

i read ,in colors magazine,
of the wonderful love

that people give freely to their love ones. its inspiring. its unconditional love. that is

perhaps what UN is doing. it makes me think that i should become a volunteer worker some day.

what about you?