It hits you like a sack of bricks. You are completely caught off guard and can’t imagine this happening to you. You wonder how people live through this, but then you meet some that do. Your heart breaks for them but you can see their joy, their happiness, and their love.
Words can’t explain what it is like to live or work in the dump, but I do know that the moments spent there have left a lasting impression on my life.
To see these families that have so little in terms of material possessions, but they have so much in the areas that really matter. So much joy, so much love, so much spirit. When you think of how we live today, we always want the next best thing. The newest smart phone, new clothes, a good meal at the new restaurant in town; this is not how life is like at the dump. These families live off of $20/week for selling materials from the dump. They pick up clothes, food, toys and materials to build and maintain their homes from their time spent rummaging through other’s trash. This is the life of the families we have grown to love at the city dump in Puerto Barrios:
** Trash amidst beauty
** This is no place to live…
** Storage and shade to use during the day
But they are a family and they love and care for each other. More importantly God loves them despite their circumstances, despite where they live or what they have to do to make money. God has given them family which is something I am so thankful for.
I’ve been away from my family for a few weeks now, but Gloria and all her children and grandchildren have truly adopted me as one of their own. We were lucky to have the opportunity to spend half of a day with a family from the dump. Some of us dug through trash to look for plastics, metals, or whatever the family was looking for that day. Some of us helped clean up a family’s house. Some of us played with kids.
When we arrived at the dump, Mama Hilda grabbed me and said that Gloria was preparing her house for me 🙂 I was so excited. Gloria invited 10 of us to spend the day with her. We trekked through 30 minutes of jungle, under barbed wire fences, through creeks, tall grasses… it was beautiful!
Gloria allowed us to help her walk through a typical morning. We cleaned dishes in the river, cut down plantains for lunch, prepared lunch, and then she served all us. She served US. With so little, she wanted nothing more than to bless us with a good meal. What a blessing.
“As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into a temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ‘Truly I tell you,’ he said, ‘ this poor widow has put in more than the others. All these people gave their gifts our of their wealth; but she out her poverty put in all she had to live on.'” ~Luke 21:1-4
I know that leaving them will be challenging but I don’t feel like it’s the last time I will see them.
** Top: Anna and I with our little boys, Alexis and Alfredo, Left: Manualito and his little smile, Right: Alexis, my heart <3
** Anna and I in the Jungle on the way to Gloria’s house
** Mama making us our lunch
**Lunch is served 🙂
“And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!'” ~Romans 10:15
