Poverty in Paradise

Wow. Another week in Guatemala has gone by. I’m still in love with it here, if not even more in love. My eyes have definitely been opened to more suffering that goes on here though. This week we went to the garbage dump and met and prayed with some of the people that lived there. It was awful.  We trudged though…I don’t even think I want to know, and the smell and the flies were at some points overwhelming. I remember looking down at one point and seeing the rotting carcass of a cow. What made it so horrible was the knowledge that this was home for some people. There were little kids just running around…in piles of trash. Along the “road” there were shelters put together and this was where these little kids would lay their heads to go to sleep…it the midst of a dump. It was definitely a heartbreaking experience.

One of the images I think I’ll never get out of my head was a little boy that I gave a banana to. We were passing out some snacks, and I saw these two little boys sitting under the shade of a little palm tree. They were on one side of barbed wire and on the other was a man, smoking. I’m assuming he was their father. He probably leaves them there all day while he goes and digs through the trash. They had to be four or five. One of the boys and the dad turned down my offer of bananas but the first little guy took one from me. The image that I have engrained in my brain is his little head looking down and his face hidden by his baseball cap. Behind him were mounds of garbage and behind that was absolute paradise, palm trees and mountains. I stuck the banana out to him and he looked at me with his beautiful dark eyes, and his face just lit up. All I did was give him a mushy banana. I’d probably be grossed out if someone gave me something like that. I have no idea how to stop the kind of evils that go on, like little boys growing up in garbage dumps, but the only thing I know how to do is to let God use me to pour His love onto those I come in contact with. I don’t know if I can even make any change that will be noticeable, or even significant, but if I can be used to bring joy to a sweet, sweet little boy, for even just three seconds, I think my time here may be worth it.