do we understand? can we understand?

yesterday and today we are experiencing a difficulty to really understand the poor here. our helper here in the house, Ibu Yanti, (we are down to one helper because i am not going to school full time anymore and we don't need the accountability that two held with watching kids...)...but yesterday this is our conversation: of course i will translate into english for you!
Yanti: Good morning ibu. i hope you are strong and healthy today.
Me: yeah... we are good except for each person is just a little sick today.
Yanti: Oh Ibu! what is wrong?
Me: blah blah blah...i went on to explain our tiny little pains and then i ask "how are you?"
Yanti: yeah, God keeps me strong and healthy.

an hour passes and i go in to tell her about the laundry i was just doing with Greg's socccer clothes cuz they had played in the rain the day before and all was MUD...then she began to tell me the story of HER day.

her and her husband, their two kids (3 and 1) and his mother moved into a tiny little house in the inner city of Salatiga so that they would be close to everything without having to walk too far. this was earlier this spring. they didn't know that when rainy season would come...which is starting just now...that their entire house would be wet on the inside. so much so they have to sweep out the water. so much so that all the mattresses are soaked and they don't have a dry place to rest their bodies. and her baby is already sick on top of this. some bronchitis thing that he has to take meds for like 6 months...the electricity went out all over town this particular night and the kids were scared, the food was ruined from the rain, and they had no place to sleep. her telephone was out of pulsa so she wasn't able to call anyone. her neighbor invited them stay at her house but her daughter wouldn't sleep there cuz it was so dark and dirty and smelly. she began to cry like a little girl but her mother-in-law told her to stop. so she did and she began to pray that God would keep her family strong and healthy. that night they all went to bed with hungry stomaches and she sat up and held her kids so they could sleep.

i felt soooo foolish for having complained of our little sicknesses to her. i feel so bad for her and this whole situation. the owner will not help fix the roof and they still have a contract with the house. they can not afford to move again! nor can they just leave this spot with so much money already paid. now that ramadan season has started...there is a lot of theft that goes on because people are trying to "pay back" debt they owe...so they steal in order to pay back. it's an awkward thing, and their house has already been broken into 3 times. she feels unsafe as well.

what can we do? i say lets build a big house in our back yard and let people live there...we know this family and one other that would go nicely there. wouldn't that be the easy thing to do? just save them? shouldn't we let them sleep in our house? she won't do it. i already told her to just come...it's a fine line here of helping and handing out...but i can't help but think out loud on this blog to all of you and wonder what to do? i know you don't understand all the cultural ins and outs of this matter and why we can't just jump on getting her into a new spot...but what i am wondering now...'would it be so bad if we overlooked culture right now?' couldn't it be said that it's "ok"? i am finding out that MOST people here have leaky houses when it rains...even foreigners...but not to the extent that Indonesians live with. what to do? can i really say to her "i'm so sorry, i will be praying for you and i hope you can find a better place to live."? and call that good? i don't think so! so please be with us in prayer over this and many matters of culture here. we just can't even begin to understand the miles they have walked in their shoes.