La Esperanza (The Hope)

First off let me just start by saying that today is really hard to put into words. But here it goes....

Today we went to the school which exists in the middle of the dump. The name of the school is "La Esperanza" which means "The Hope". That's exactly what it is. It is the beginning of hope for so many of those children.

Many of us were surprised to find that the dump was right near the town. One minute we were on the bus in a busy street and the next minute we turned a corner and there we were at the entrance to the dump. The bus suddenly became silent as well all began to take in the reality of what we were seeing.

We went to the school first and then proceeded to go out into the "streets" of the village that exists within the dump. Within the garbage. From the moment we got there children who saw us gravitated towards us. One 13 year old girl made a direct b-line to Jenn, a member of our team, and immediately hugged her. This 13 year old girl walked with us the entire time as we walked through the village and all the while she carried her little diaperless, naked, sibling.

Jenn with Joanna and her siblings


Along the walk we saw many children. In the eyes of a few of those children we saw pain. In some we saw nothing at all, but in others we saw JOY. It was amazing to see such joy in the middle of such despair. I, Shannon, knelt down down to say hi to a little 2 year old girl and she immediately reached up for me. When I picked her up she barried her head into my shoulder and clung to me. It was gut wrenching to have to put her down and move on. Tina was invited into one little girls home and was shocked to find out that everybody slept on the dirt ground each night. In the house there was a pig, a chicken, and a dog, along with a seat from a car and a refridgerator. We don't know if the fridge worked or not. However you may be shocked to know that they do actually have electricity in the dump.

This is a house. In many of the houses three families live inside.

Another group of hous.es with a horse tied off outside the home. There were many wild dogs, pigs and cows roaming around the village inside the dump

There were many little girls, like this one, who gravitated towards the younger girls on our team.

After we took that all in (as if we could REALLY do that) we headed back to the school to get to work. We spent the day painting the school both inside and out. Throughout our time there many kids came to see what we were up to and were happy to receive any candy we gave them. They were also happy to receive love and attention from all of us. We wanted to do more. But we know that the school does so much throughout the year, and so by serving the school we were serving those kids as well.

Painting the school

Playing at the school with some of the kids

When it was time to leave it was a mixed reaction from the group. Some had to say goodbye to kids they had formed a connection with. Some left weeping with broken hearts, and some left still processsing and waiting on God. As Val said in the post from team 1 after they went to the dump....it's hard to put it into words.

Tomorrow we will be heading to the Villa de Esperanza which is the Village of Hope. That is where they are building homes to house young girls from the dump. It will be a place that will bring hope and new life to those girls. We've heard that we are in for a long, hard, dirty day tomorrow. So please pray for our strength and renewed spirit. Oh we also found out tonight that tomorrow night we get to go to an outdoor complex and play soccer under the lights with a group of kids. That will be fun. We'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

(Ok Dan... this is just for you! Sorry mom, not in this one either! -Kris)