Another day, another community from one of the rings of the Inferno

After breakfast, we set out to see the other two communities the Foundation is working with. The condition in which we find these people is completely unimaginable. I suppose that the slums of Rio or Calcutta or Cairo can rival what we see today, but only in size. Your imagination really can't fill it what we see today. No, it really can't. The first group we meet is compsed of indigenous people and drug addicts (we don't see the addicts). They are unwanted by the neighboring communities and under the constant threat of being bulldozed. (Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out if this would be as bad as it sounds, except that the people would be driven into the street, plus the injustice of the act.) No one wants them. Their ground is extremely polluted because they started digging latrines next to holes for wells, not realizing the problem with this. Now,scattered through the whole community over a number of years, the whole area is unfit for clean water wells. They then tried to go up the hill to get water, but the neighboring communities started dumping garbage up the hill to prevent this (not to mention the dead bodies that seem to collect up the hill - 7 were found up there earlier this week.) Now, their only choice is to steal water from a cistern for a nearby slaughter house. They haven't given up on digging a well nearby for a cistern system that would come into the community, but they have no money for this.

Adjacent to this community is another that while it looks as bad is at least accepted by the surrounding communities and has access to clean water. Clean water is one of the essential foundations for a better life for these people. Clean water is the key to better sanitation and better health. Dirty water leads to a long list of health maladies, from assorted parasites, bloated digestion tracts, all sorts of disease, disfiguring skin diseases and so forth, not to mention head lice and general stink.

After we leave, we have a chance for lunch and then we leave Santo Domingo. We get to ride back up the hills (mountains) we came down. It's not quite as exciting being on the mountain-side of the road as it is being on the drop-off side. We were all glad to see Quito. The Refugio is downright civilized compared to where we have been!

Peace to all of you from the intrepid pilgrims.