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| School Addition |
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| Widow's House |
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Yesterday, I spent the day at the dump with Andy (Zihua Roofing) who donated the roof for the school project. I wasn't much help, I don't do roofs anymore. A group from Canada came down to build an addition at the stick school. The school is not much of a school, but all that they have. A one room school that serves all age groups with little outside support. The teacher is a volunteer who encourages the kids to come and learn and provides a meal and clean water. The addition will give them more space, a place to do some washing and a small cook stove for preparing meals. Today, there is a small celebration as some kids will get a certificate of graduation.
This is the dump that Zihuatanejo Christian Fellowship supports and sets up chairs for movie night. The children and families come and watch the movie, hear a message of hope and sometimes even get hotdogs and popcorn.
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| Near completion |
The dump is a dirty, smelly fly infested, dog infested, buzzard infested community where the families dig through garbage in order to find any recyclable items to sell. Many of the kids do not go to school and their future is extremely limited. One young mother of two was in school with her husband. She is 14 years old. It is sad, but that seems to be the norm.
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| Picket Fence |
The organizer of the project, Sid, held a community meeting before the work began to explain what was happening. He told them that the team was all volunteer, however, he said that he would be hiring some helpers from the dump at a full wage. One of the structures that they were building was a new home for a widow. Her husband recently died at age 28 leaving her with two children and in much need. There are others at the dump who will receive help in the future, but it was important to explain to everyone why the widow was selected.
Some of the kids from the dump have begun to hang out with Cristian Cruz and attend his youth group. We see them helping at the Church and they are making good progress. There is always hope and little by little changes can be seen.
Sid says that he has already seen some of the families begin to clean up around their shacks and take a little pride and feel better about themselves. I walked around the corner and noticed a shack with a little white stick fence around the front. It was a bit puzzling to see that someone took the time to make some small improvements. These homes are literally pieces of plastic, old scrapes of wood, cobbled together with whatever can be found. There is no running water, no electricity, no air conditioning and yet there seems to be the idea developing that at least it is my home.
Poco a Poco
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| Girls of the Dump |
It's hard to imagine life for so many people is this desperate, yet we've seen the same or worse levels of poverty on a much larger scale throughout India, Ethiopia, Thailand and Malaysia. We've witnessed conditions where children have no clothes, eat filthy food and sleep on sidewalks without padding or blankets. For Mexico, I think it's significant that the United States is it's northern neighbor, because there are people here within reach of these communities. I wonder what life looks like further in-land, where there are no beach resorts or tourists. These kind of scenes give earth the appearance an abandoned planet, a race of human beings discarded and unloved. In fact such widespread extreme suffering is one of the arguments my atheist friends make for rejecting any belief in a good and just God. I, myself, often wonder why He lets it continue. For all the charitable work that is done to bring relief, it's obvious that these efforts/resources barely scratch the surface of true need world-wide. The rich man/poor beggar story (Luke 16) shows the weight of importance these situations have on our destinies, so doing something - anything - ought to be a constant priority. I do think there are some theological answers, but the problem of suffering seems to out-distance theology. I hope God is merciful to those who stumble over ideologies, because I can understand their doubts. Had I not met God in a personal way, I am sure I would be an agnostic, and the problem of pain would be my insurmountable obstacle.
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