So this past week was our last week of ministry here in Trujillo, Peru and we were able to work at the dump. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I heard about the people living there and working there, but I didn’t expect to react to seeing it like I did. The only information we received about it from other teams that went was that it was tough to see and it was long, hard days. So I was surprised when Stephanie, our contact, told us the first day that we had the morning off. She had some meetings to go to and she wanted to go into the actual dump to hand out fruit and talk to people who were working that afternoon. So around 2:30 we started the almost hour journey to get to the dump. We got off the bus and had to walk about a mile to get there. Walking through the streets to get to the dump was hard enough. There was trash and flies everywhere and the smell was hardly bearable. There were dogs everywhere. Some were healthy and some had holes in their legs or crushed paws. If this is how the dogs were, I couldn’t imagine what the people were like.
We entered the dump and didn’t really see anything, just mounds and mounds of trash. We walked a little further and found a whole group of people working. They all had long sleeves and long pants on, with a shirt or some kind of material shielding their noses and mouths. They had trailers made of logs and that were pulled by donkeys. They were all picking through the trash with their bare hands.
It was so surreal. I had seen poverty before, but nothing like this.
I think we were all a little shocked, so Stephanie began to go up to talk to people and asked if they went to church and then invited them to the program that we were going to have on Saturday. We would give them a piece of fruit and then pray for them.
We met a family with a 12 and 15 year old that helped their parents find plastic and even food for them to eat through the trash.
We met an older woman who had to care for her sick daughter so she had been working in the dump for the past 7 years.
We met a 24 year old woman with a 5 and 6 year old who worked in the dump to support her family.
I couldn’t say anything.
I just listened and tried to hide the tears in my eyes behind my sunglasses.
All I could imagine was my grandma working in the dump. Or my little brothers. Or my mom. Just so they could put food on the table.
As I was walking away and trying to process all that I had seen the previous 30 minutes, I became angry.
I didn’t understand why people had to live this way.
What did I do to deserve such a lush lifestyle?
Why are people letting this happen?
Why the hell is the world like this?
They next days were just as hard to take in as the first. I met children who smelled, whose shoes didn’t match, who were dirty and probably hungry. I began to fall in love with them. I played with them. I laughed with them. I swung them around until we were both dizzy. And I realized that these little children were Jesus. These were the least of these. These children are why God brought me to The World Race.
I can sit here all day long and ask why.
I can sit here and get really angry at the way things are.
Or I can love.
I can love until I can’t anymore.
I choose to love the child with lice in her hair.
I choose to love the teenager who eats out of the garbage because he has no other choice.
I choose to love the people who live in shacks made of garbage.
I choose to love the dirty, little, smiling children because Jesus loves them.
And for the first time I saw them through His eyes. How much He loves them. And now I can see how much He loves me.
