What does childhood look like for a typical American kid?
Running through sprinklers on a hot sunny day, chasing after the ice cream truck to grab their favorite flavor, going to birthday parties and eating a huge slice of cake, playing at the park swinging and hopping around like nobody’s watching, being read to before bed with a nice big kiss on the forehead before falling gently asleep in a warm cozy bed, and not having a care in the world.
What does childhood look like for a Guatemalan kid living at the garbage dump?
This is Emerson…
He is 3 years old and lives among rotting garbage. He has 2 brothers, one who is only a few months old, and the other who is about 10. He likes to keep to himself, and usually plays hard to get, but cannot resist a giant smile when he is tossed in the air and hugged.
This is May…
She is 4 years old and lives among dangerous bacteria. She has one little sister, Jasmine, who is a very independent toddler. May loves coloring and piggy back rides. She is also one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen.
This is Mirna…
She is 6 years old and lives among vultures and machetes. She has 5 siblings, Letti, Dunia, Sandra, Carlos, and Miguel. She is rambunctious and loves to talk, and her feet barely touch the ground since she always loves to be held.
These are just 3 of the many children growing up at the local dump.
They are confined to a life of constant illness, foul smells that make the inside of your nose burn, and picking plastic out of heaping loads of garbage so their families can earn a little money. With each large bag of plastic they make about 5 quetzals (around 64 cents).
When we asked the kids at the dump what their favorite thing to do is, their response shocked us: to collect plastic.
These children work day after day picking through rotting garbage of all sorts, yet somehow they managed to find things to look forward to in their day…collecting plastic.
After a long day of work, these are the houses they return to…
Many would judge these people, and find no purpose in their lives, but my team sees the value in their lives.
Every week my team brings meals to all the families that live there. When we go, we do not see poor, purposeless people who are begging us for our food and money, instead we see our brothers and sisters, our equals, who are longing for the same things we have found in Christ; love, fulfillment, importance, value, and belonging. Only God can give them these things they are looking for, but that’s not to say my team has no impact on that. God has been using my team as a vessel to show his love to all of the people at the dump, and to make these individuals recognize their importance.
Our main goal isn’t to provide these people with food, rather, it is to teach them about God, who loves them unconditionally, who made them individually, who wants to fill the void in their lives. Our goal is also to show these children how loved, important, and valuable they are to their Father in Heaven.
