Week One at the dump is complete. I
made many promises to keep as many blogs as concise as possible, so
I’ll do my best.
- We are working with an organization
called the Philippine Christian Foundation. (www.pcf.ph) - Team Libre is partnered with team
Judah, so we are a group of 13. - We get picked up every morning
(Sunday-Friday) outside our hostel, and head for the dump. - 5,000 people live in/on the dump.
- They are called “scrappers.”
- We work at a school in the dump run by
PCF for around 500 students, made up of children of the scrappers. - Our ministries there are:
the Library- this is where I have
spent the majority of my timethe stock room- nearly completed
by members of team Judahbagging rice for end of the week
rewards for students (forget stickers, these kids get to feed their
families for doing well in school, what an incredible motivation)soccer practice- more like chaos
control- dishes- helping the staff with
dishes after lunch (which is provided free of charge to all the
kids)
More about the Library- I wish I had a
before photo of the library to show you all the amazing progress we
have made in ab out 3 full days in the library. We were shown into a
room that had books on its shelves around the outer edges of 3 walls.
It also had a HUGE pile of boxes/chairs/bags/randomness in the middle
of the room. The room has 3 fans, so it is a comfortable 95 degrees
most of the day. The floor floods from the ground up so any boxes on
the floor are molded through. Every book is a little moldy. Every
shelf has rat and roach poop on it. Every box contains at least one
cockroach, typically closer to 3-5, typically about the size and
flying speed of a hummingbird. There are many many textbooks, a
random collection of non fiction children;s books, some adult text
books, 2 sets of encyclopedias, and over 3,000 children’s fiction
books. We know how many fiction books because we have cataloged
them all. Typed every author and title into a new database. We also
put them in (shock shock) alphabetical order. We haven’t even started
fiction or adult books. We have too many books for the shelves, but
we plan on roping a bookshelf together so its shelves stay up on
Monday. We haven’t even begun the possibly biggest part of the
project, covering all of those books with plastic. Our goal is to get
as far as we can before we head out in 2 more weeks.
To back up a bit, w started our week on
Monday and got a tour of the school, got to see the site for the new
school, where classes will be held this coming June, and where the
Library will have many more shelves and hopefully much less mold and
bugs. Then we went to the dump. We drove through inches of mud and
jumped out of the Jeepney (local transport) and just wandered with
the vice principle of the school for a while. This was a but unreal.
How many times have I seen the Compassion commercial? Well guess
what, its worse. It is dirtier, more unsanitary, harder, and WAY more
joyful. Yes, joyful. The kids were happy. They had constructed kites
from pieces of plastic, grocery bags, a water bottle and string of
some sort. It was all they needed. Those kites flew and the kids
loved it. They showed us their treasures. They taught us how to
collect the plastic trash. They laughed as they played tag. They held
their kittens. They don’t want more. They don’t even know more is
an option.
The adults were working, a few hanging
out because they “work” the night shift (trash barges and trucks
come to the dump at all hours, you don’t sleep or you miss the boat,
literally).
What do I do with this? What can I
do? What can you do?
I’m glad to let you know I have the
answer. What do I do?- I sort through discarded books and shape them
into a library. What can I do? I can rejoice in the opportunity to
helpthe children at PCF learn English, a practical ticket to a better
life than their parents have. What can you do? PRAY! Please be in
prayer for me and my team. We are growing closer through this (not to
mention living 13 to a room and all of us working at a dump all day,
you can imagine the way our room smells). Please remember us in your
prayers. I am also still raising financial support, so if you feel
led to give, there is a link on the left. (Sorry this wasn’t so
short)
You can find pictures of the first 2
weeks here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024614&l=3e151&id=65800181
(you don’t need facebook to view them:)
another blog about day 2 in the
cemetary school to come.
