Journal Entry #4

Thursday July 17, 2010

Today was a heavy day. It started out awesome though. We did a cool ice breaker where we stood in 2 lines and talked to our partnet for 2 minutes while we walked around the Casa Bernabe grounds. Then after 2 minutes, the person on the right would walk up ahead to the next person and start a new conversation. It was cool to at least have a conversation with a few people that I hadn't talked to at all the whole trip.

The Baby Room/Area

Then we hopped on our bus to our first destination for the day. It was a church called El Faro (The Lighthouse). It's a church on the outskirts of La Chureca. La Chureca is a community living in a garbage dump. They spend their days working in the garbage, collecting anything that can be recycled or eaten. There was a story of a young single mother who had to go out and work. She had nowhere to leave her baby, so she left it in her "house" (more like a shack) and covered it with a cardboard box so the stray dogs wouldn't harm it. She went and did a full days work and came back to find that her house and her baby were gone because the bulldozers had come through during the day. This was not an uncommon occurrence and this church, El Faro, saw the need for a daycare. So they have a daycare that serves the families of La Chureca, as well as giving micro loans for people to start small businesses in La Chureca.

There was a lot going on at the daycare. I was standing awkwardly (again) and just was trying to take it all in. I finally prayed a little prayer "God, I just want to make a connection". A little while later, Nate was holding this toddler and asked if I wanted to hold him. I said yes and took him and just held onto him. He was so quiet and calm (he had just woken up from a nap and seemed a little out of it still lol) and he had that sweet baby sweat smell (that is apparently the same in all countries :)) About half of the group went into La Chureca to do some work while the rest of us stayed at the daycare to help out. (They were short staffed due to sickness, and by the way, all the men went into Chureca because we had been told numerous times of the dangers. A few of the women did go, but they were cautioned to stay with the men at all times). I held on to the baby who was just content watching everyone play. I walked around with him a little bit and started to just pray over him. Suddenly, I was just overwhelmed by emotion and started to cry a little bit. I couldn't help it, and I tried to hold it back (I don't cry in public...). I brushed my tears away and Laura walked over and said that the little girl she was playing with was very concerned about me. So cute. Then Alissa walked over and said "Don't you just wish you could take him home?" and I just couldn't hold back the tears and started full out crying. The baby was just content in my arms with me crying all over him... Ha ha... Then I fed him lunch, which from the picture you can tell he just LOVED.... Ha ha...

When things slowed down at the daycare, we asked Josias, our translator, when we were going into La Chureca. He apologetically said that he thought he maybe messed something up and that we weren't going to get to go... There was a moment of mixed feelings for me. I was almost relieved, but at the same time disappointed that we would miss out on an experience that everyone else on the trip had. I wanted to see with my own eyes. Josias made a few phone calls and then came and told us our ride was here. We looked and didn't see a bus, and then Ramon, the pastor of El Faro, got out of a Nissan Pathfinder and motioned for us to come over. We were all sort of like, you've got to be kidding. Then Josias started opening the doors and the back hatch. Laura said "Oh, we're really doing this" and climbed in. I followed. We ended up cramming 11 passengers in this Nissan Pathfinder. There were 2 in the front seat, 4 in the middle and 5 of us smooshed in the back/trunk. The back hatch wouldn't close, so Josias just shut the spare tire gate and we bounced around back there. Being crammed was funny so we were all just laughing and laughing and so it took away the shocking, sobering moment when you drive through the gates of La Chureca.

My hand is on my knee on the left side of this picture...

There I am!

The smell hit us first. Trash was piled everywhere and we were on a deep muddy "road". I was actually a little worried that we'd get stuck in the mud. Bulldozers were pushing garbage around and stray dogs were all over. We stopped at a feeding center to meet up with the rest of our group. There were shantys as far as you could see. The few minutes we had at the feeding center are a blur as I took in all the smells and sights around me. Raol took us up a hill to overlook the Community. When we got about halfway up there was a nasty pond with green scum over the top and garbage falling into it. Raol told us it was the swimming pool.

It's not in the picture, but on the right side of the pool, there was a steep hill with trash piled at the top and trailing down all the way to the bottom and into the water. We got to the top of the hill and words do not even describe what I saw. Piles of trash with bulldozers and people covering it. Vultures soared over their heads. The heat was intense and the sun just beat down on us. You could see the people rummaging through the trash. We walked back down the hill and I almost stepped on a chunk of bone. We went to the bus and I was just numb.
(Photos courtesy of the Litchys)