El Basurero

Today was day 1 in the city dump with Lauren, the intern who oversees work at El Basurero. The dump houses the poorest of the poor in Guatemala, but it is governed by an alderman of sorts named Teri who is a solid Christian and has a great heart for her people. Recently there was a fire that claimed 9 homes, but the people really band together in the community and they repaired much of the damage in the first few days. 

When we arrived, we went to the preschool started by HRI to work on organizing the school materials there l. When we finished, we were able to go into the classrooms and interact and run games with the children. When school finished we played with them on the playground. In actuality, they played with US. We transformed into jungle gyms with children climbing on our shoulders and demanding to be carried everywhere. It was tiring on our already sore bodies, but what a delight to be able to love on them and get to know them for 

the first time.

After lunch, we split into two teams again. My team went first to make a house visit. We picked up several children along the way to the point that we didn't know who lived in the house we visited and who didn't. The woman there, Andrea--is a grandmother caring for both children and grandchildren and struggling to stay afloat, but she repeatedly thanked God for the blessings she's had and was gracious to us about being here, reminding us that we have an impact.

After that, we switched places with the others and worked on the mosaic on the wall in the park. This was admittedly the most frustrating part of the day as it was difficult to piece together the tiles, get them to stick, and fend off the children playing and trying to help. We have jokingly started calling it the zombie apocalypse, particularly when we are in the preschool and the students are banging on the doors to get in.  Still, they are precious and make you feel so loved and we hope we've done the same for them. 

It can feel like drive by mission work when you pop into a place for a matter of  hours, get people attached to you, then disappear. Luckily, we get to return tomorrow for a trip with the students to the zoo!

¡Adios!