Y’all I just simply could not hold my tongue on this one. Today, we piled into the bed of a pick up (probably 12 of us in total; don’t worry mom I’m fine ??) and set out for the city’s trash dump. In Nicaragua, there are people that work at the dump in order to gain their livelihood. Their hope is to find some aluminum or sturdy plastic or something of the sort in order to get what would equate to roughly $20 USD for the week! (and no that really isn’t all too much out here either). They work all day picking through trash, under the hot sun, in toxic air (burning plastic and sewage mixed together) just to get that small sum for the ENTIRE week. Just to add more insult to injury, there are houses there. So yes, people not only work in these horrible conditions but they live in them too.
The dump is basically a makeshift hill of burning plastic and other waste which mimics the rolling hills around it. Of course, instead of lush green lively trees and shrubbery, this hill is full of waste that the stray dogs in the city couldn’t even fully pick through. Oh yeah, that reminds me! The stuff that is brought to the dump is not simply discarded by the inhabitants of the city. The trash is put out for pickup which is then looked through by the people living on the street there. It is then picked up in trucks where the drivers pick through it for treasure and then the owners of these trucks get their pickings as well. Once brought to the dump the operators of this land get their pickings as well and finally it ends up in the hands of these wonderful individuals we got the pleasure of meeting.
Sorry had to set the scene! So my team and I were set up with others on the ministry and providing a meal to these scrappers trying to find their treasure amongst the discarded. Ironic given that we were there to tell them that every one of their hearts is a treasure in the eyes of the Father, but I don’t make the circumstances I just live them! Those that weren’t serving the food line were going around to converse with the workers who had their food and offer to pray for them if they had anything in mind. Here is where we meet Maria.
Maria is a single mother of 3 boys aged 19,16, and 15 respectively. She works here because there is no other work (about 80-85% unemployment in Granada, Nicaragua) and wants her kids to have a better life. Her eldest just started at university where he is looking for a degree in business administration (same type of degree I just received last year #CongratsGrad??). The other two are in high school and she refuses to let them work in the dump.
Upon asking Maria how long she had been working at the dump she told me just about 40 years. She told me that she had started there at 8 years old. The reason? Her parents did not feel like working, so she was forced to get work there to provide. No health issues, just didn’t feel like it….
The conversation went on for quite awhile about her life and what God has blessed her family with. At one point when her youngest was 8, he got very sick to the point that the doctors said without medicine he would surely die. Unable to afford medicine, Maria recounted the prayer she lifted to God that day. To paraphrase, she was ready to give her son to the Lord if that is what He ordained. If the Lord kept him here, she vowed her son to God and make sure this young man would always honor and live for the father. I asked her specifically if she asked for healing in her prayer. She said that she simply asked for God’s will to be done!
Finally, I asked Maria what specifically she wanted me to pray for. She said that her and her family have already been blessed beyond belief and “just, give thanks.” Just, give thanks? Just, give thanks!? Maria, wait! You were robbed of your childhood! Forced to work simply to eat! Forced to take anything given to you! Forced to work and spend most of your life, 40 YEARS, in a place meant for literal garbage and you just want to give thanks!? WHAT!?!?
I pray that we all gain the same degree of joy and peace and faith that Maria has. I pray we can look at women like Maria and see her for the treasure she is rather than the garbage she works in. I pray we can look at every possible hardship or circumstance and just thank God no matter how badly we are getting pummeled by life and the enemy.
