Another Community

After bidding farewell to our friends at La Isla, we set out to visit one of the other communities the Foundation is working with. This one is much larger, maybe around 5,000 people. They are situated on a garbage dump that contains medical waste. The ground is so contaminated that they cannot build a well like the one at La Isla. The smell of sewage coming off of the adjacent river is almost overpowering. The community leaders met us and walked around the community to tell us of their challenges and their hopes. They are an extremely happy, laughing group of people. They told us all they have is their laughs and their faith in God. They are VERY religious. In all of these places, you would simply not believe the sort of things people call a home. Two inches below your feet are several feet of piled up medical garbage. Here, a girl is usually pregnant by 14 (and 11 is not uncommon) and with another man by 16. Violent crime is a normal occurrence with several people killed every day (we are assured that we are safe, since we are with the community leaders).

Getting clean water into this community is more complicated. A piece of vacant land outside of the community needs to be purchased where a well can be dug and cisterns set up. The water then needs piped into the community. Even if they were to dig 2,000 feet, they would not find clean water anywhere in their community. Interestingly, they have not given up hope of this becoming a reality some day.

After we were given some bananas we headed to the hotel for the evening. It was a day filled with great emotional swings.