The Aftershock

Reflections from Reade since our trip to the dump...

In the days since the trip to the dump, we have continued to have a great sense of pity and sadness for the men, women, and children there. Likewise, we have a great sense of pity for many around where we are staying in Nueva Suyapa.

Nueva Suyapa sits on the edge of the old dump that was closed in 1979 before the new one opened. In fact, some of it is built on the old dump. While this is a better place to live than around the current dump, there are people here that are just as poor and desperate as those at the dump. There are also some who have been fortunate enough to get educated and improve their lives and their family's lives - you can see this because they have houses that are more than just walls and a metal roof, or wear several sets of clothes, or own a rehabilitated 1980s era U.S. automobile. Yet, we occasionally see kids and adults digging through the dumpster that serves this community looking for something that they can sell or turn into profit.

In one sense, we are hopeful that the community around the current dump can progress to what this ex-dump community is today. At least there are schools here, and most kids get to attend them without having to go digging through trash afterwards. And there is running water and electricity. But progress has only gone so far, and there are also people who struggle just as much because they don't have jobs. There are kids that are sent into the city to beg, and families that eat only rice or tortillas and sometimes cannot afford to eat.

In our short time here, we have gotten to know a lot of kids and some of their parents. We have desperately desired to transition our pity into compassion - the type of compassion Jeony models. Jeony has helped us understand why we feel so torn apart. He has shown us that people here need compassion and hope. But this has been very hard for us to achieve as it takes enormous courage, time, relationship building (or as Young Life calls it, earning the right to be heard), and a better command of the language so we can understand the depths of individual problems.

In short, compassion as we want to show takes much more than the 2 months we will have been here when we have to return home - and certainly a greater command of the language. Jesus, the true model of compassion, was able to penetrate the limitations of time and language, and reach people with compassion instantaneously, as he did with the woman at the well. Some people have this blessing - like Mother Theresa. But we feel it is very hard for us to share compassion that quickly and make it seem real and sustainable.

We have been blessed to have other English speakers like our neighbor Anna, and Chris and Maureen whose house we live in, and Kurt and Joanne who have lived here for 20 years, to help us understand individual situations. But there is so much we would like to do.

We still don't know where God is leading us. We returned here because we felt a tugging at our hearts and we wanted to show some compassion to those who we had met on our first trip... maybe to get to know them a little better or possibly to provide for some of their physical needs. So far that has come in the form of playing with the kids, reading with them, providing meaningful hugs which they are starving for, and showing them they are valuable by spending time with them. It is sad that many of the kids here don't get that because they have only one parent, or their parents are working so hard they don't spend quality time with them (which ironically is a condition not dissimilar to that in many U.S. homes).

We feel at times very guilty for having so much while these people have so little - for always being able to eat when we want and not having to fight for basics like food or shelter. The verse that keeps coming to mind is, "To much is given, much is expected."

But for now, without the resources of tons of time or fluency, we are coming to see that prayer is the most important thing we can do.