long over due

Time seems to be an interesting thing while I have been away. Though the weeks seem to ultimately fly by, sometimes the days inch slowly by like they´re racing snails. Last Thursday Jeanette (our American journalist friend) took us to the capital city, Managua, and more importantly to La Chureca, the biggest dump in Nicaragua. The dump was unlike anything I could have even imagined and even after walking through it I am still unable to comprehend the realities of their lives. Staring poverty in the face is truly and indescribable experience. As I was walking through meeting the children and adults who live, work and go to school in the dump my body was numb. I was seeing them, but couldn´t really ´see´ them.



La Chureca is a community of over 4000 families that call the dump home. Many do not ever step foot outside the gates of hell (the entrance) into a world completely different than their own. Spontaneous combustion's, decomposing animals, discarded needles and if they´re luck rotting food is what awaits them day after day. Their days are spent scavenging through the trucks that drop off the city´s waste, and many worker have yet to celebrate their 8th birthdays.Though the dump is equipped with a school, many children are forced to spend their days searching for food and recyclables to make an extra buck or two for their families.



When Jeanette made the plans to take us to La Chureca ( where she had volunteered for 5 months) she contacted two very brave women for help. Percilla and Dorthy who were thrilled to give us a presentation on La Chureca, by explaining both the brutal past and their hopeful future. The two power houses are in the midst of creating their own non profit organization focusing on the youth living in the dump. Their hope is to bring education and opportunity to those who have nothing. Percilla and Dorthy's 1st project revolves around Little Fabiola and her terribly difficult life. At nine years old her step father is guilty of sexually abusing her while her mother is in the house. Meeting Fabiola was one of the saddest things I have faced while in Nicaragua. Her big brown eyes had a past more difficult and complicated than what most adults have to deal with. What´s even more disturbing is that Fabiola isn´t a case of one in a million, this kind of abuse happens all over the dump and there is no one to stop it. Many of the drivers will have sex with the children and pay them in plastic bottles. This trip was disgusting, smelly, heart breaking, eye opening and a shock to say the least.

Though most of La Chureca is a story of heart break and hopelessness there are a few glimmers of hope. There is a safe haven that has been built for the children by a group of generous Italians. They are able to bathe, eat and get away from the difficulties that are their everyday lives. While Jeanette was working there for five months she took some of the students on field trips to explore other parts of Nicaragua, parts they would have otherwise never seen. They are being taught interview and writing skills, bracelet and necklace making among other things.Franklin, a teen cared for by Jeanette is a talented bracelet maker, so of course I couldn´t pass up the opportunity to buy own and support their cause. Though La Chureca is a very overwhelming experience, with the help of people like Jeanette, Percilla, Dorthy and other like minded individuals there is a very possible future for those living in the dump. A future that doesn´t consist living and working in the landfill hunting for their own food and plastics.