Saturday, May 8, 2010

Guatemala City Dump

Thursday morning, May 6, our family visited the Guatemala City dump with some of the other ORI staff. It was a very interesting - and heartwrenching - experience. (This is the second time we've been into the dump.)





Charlie and I bought rice, beans, corn flour, noodles, soup mix, and some other items at Price Smart. Denny contributed apples from the market. We and the Freeds assembled 125 food packets in our carport Wednesday afternoon.



This is the main garbage dump for all of Guatemala City. It is huge, covering an area the size of 24 football fields. An estimated 11,000 people live in and around the dump, making their "living" scavenging for anything they can sell for a bit of money. Sadly, 7000 of these scavengers are children.




First, we unloaded the food in one of the houses. Then we handed out food to each family in this makeshift community, small tin and cardboard shacks built inside the walls of city dump.



Alisha handing out bags of maseca (corn flour). We saw many babies and children in this "community".




There are 120 "lots" in this community. This is one of several "streets". This "town" has sprung up within the last three months. When we visited the same place in the dump last year there were only heaps of garbage in this same location.


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We handed out candy to the children (and the adults, too) as we walked around.



This is the inside of one of the "homes". There is, of course, no electricity, running water, or bathroom facilities in any of the houses.



We were very surprised to find little tiendas (stores) within the community. Charlie bought some tortillas from the vendor, an elderly lady who was cooking on a gridle over a wood fire.


This is the inside of the largest store. We bought cold sodas here. The two little ones were playing on the dirt floor.




Two little girls were happy to show me their pet kitten. As you would expect, most of the children were wearing dirty, tattered clothing. However, we were very surprised to see that some of the children (including these two) were clean and well dressed.









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