Going to the dump never gets easier. Neither does telling a little girl that you are serving milk to that she can't have anymore because of the line of children behind her that need some too. Today was our last day in Guatemala but also my third time at the dump in the last three years. My eyes burn with tears every time we pull up to the feeding center there and see the crowd of people covered in filth that are waiting to get food for their families.
Hope of Life feeds three times a week and people will travel for miles on foot all day to fill their plastic cups and bags with food. The kids wait in line to fill old coke and water bottles that they found in the dump with milk while their mothers wait for the food. We give them tortillas, chicken and noodles and rice milk. This time around, Eddy from our group was generous enough to buy 25 watermelons for us to cut and to hand out as well. My job was to pour milk into the containers that the children held but was only allowed to fill each one to a certain point. After I filled the bottles the kids would take them over to an even larger bottle that their family shares and would pour it in there and then would get back in line.
The dump was exactly how it was the first two times I went, sad and hopeless. There were two houses that were made out of stick, tires and tarp in the middle of the dump. Our translator explained that Hope of Life offered the two mothers that live there each a real home on campus but they declined. The dump, believe it or not, is their comfort zone. They have lived there and raised their kids there for so long that they did not want to change locations. It absolutely broke my heart.
The dump is by far my least favorite part about Guatemala because my heart breaks every time we visit it. Although it makes me grateful for what The Lord has blessed me with, it makes me almost sick to my stomach and I can't help but have sympathy for the people. When I walk back to the bus I never turn around and take one last glimpse and think, "I'm really going to miss this about Guatemala" because it is the worst place on the planet.
Hope of Life feeds three times a week and people will travel for miles on foot all day to fill their plastic cups and bags with food. The kids wait in line to fill old coke and water bottles that they found in the dump with milk while their mothers wait for the food. We give them tortillas, chicken and noodles and rice milk. This time around, Eddy from our group was generous enough to buy 25 watermelons for us to cut and to hand out as well. My job was to pour milk into the containers that the children held but was only allowed to fill each one to a certain point. After I filled the bottles the kids would take them over to an even larger bottle that their family shares and would pour it in there and then would get back in line.
The dump was exactly how it was the first two times I went, sad and hopeless. There were two houses that were made out of stick, tires and tarp in the middle of the dump. Our translator explained that Hope of Life offered the two mothers that live there each a real home on campus but they declined. The dump, believe it or not, is their comfort zone. They have lived there and raised their kids there for so long that they did not want to change locations. It absolutely broke my heart.
The dump is by far my least favorite part about Guatemala because my heart breaks every time we visit it. Although it makes me grateful for what The Lord has blessed me with, it makes me almost sick to my stomach and I can't help but have sympathy for the people. When I walk back to the bus I never turn around and take one last glimpse and think, "I'm really going to miss this about Guatemala" because it is the worst place on the planet.
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