La Limonada

What a day! Today was the team's day in Limonada--the largest ghetto in Central America with 100,000 people. La Limonada is divided into colonies, some that are hostile towards each other. There used to be a large gang presence, but they more or less killed each other off. Gun violence has greatly decreased as well. Ashley, the Vice President of Hope Renewed, has lived much of her life in La Limonada and experienced some close calls with bullets coming through her bedroom window in times past. 

We started our day in Limonada watching the end of a soccer game with the HRI sponsored team playing. After our tour of the ghetto--including a stop at the site of the community center HRI is putting in- we broke into two teams. First, my team went to work with Ellie on a construction project which is the process of constructing the concrete walls of the future residence of a family that is being served by HRI after their original house was destroyed in a landslide. It was pretty tough physical labor carrying buckets of water, rocks, and sand, then mixing it up. It was broken up by playing with two cute little kids-Crystal and Usiel-who pretty much cracked up at anything I did.

The second half of the day we swapped with the other part of the team and we joined Luis-one of the HRI interns-to make house calls to people being served by HRI. The first experience was the most emotional experience for me. We met Alex and Pati and their son, Steven-the family for whom the house is being constructed. Alex used to live a life of crime and once when he was trying to steal, he was shot and paralyzed from the waist down. Pati became his nurse and served him through quite a lot. She cried recounting how God has helped them through and blessed them. In return for his new house, Alex had to put in a few months of labor. He hopes to become a computer tech despite his physical limitations. Unfortunately, they are in danger of losing their current house before the new one was finished but they were hopeful. Each family we met was very grateful for everything they've received, but they have worked and are working hard for it. With each family we met, we prayed Korean style which is where everyone stands in a circle and prays out loud at the same time. 

Needless to say it was a long and tiring day but full of blessings. The Guatemalan people are very open and relational and they make the cultural divide seem much smaller.  Our first full day was a success and we're looking forward to the next two days in the city dump.

¡Hasta mañana!