A New Ghetto

Well, we're back at Dorie's Promise after a long and exciting day. We started out with a quick breakfast here, and then headed to church in a different ghetto with Desi, the mission coordinator for Dorie's and Abel, the man-who-does-everything-at-Dorie's.

The ghetto was similar to the Limonada in that there were what seemed like 500 steps and cement ramps to get into, but the whole place was much smaller. About 200 families live there and were invited to spend the morning with us worshiping God. Ellie and I had planned a little Sunday School lesson and craft, about the Feeding of the 5000. When we finally got to the bottom, we were shown an area where we could hang out with the kids, who don't go to church [only the adults do]. The rest of the group stayed in the area we came to, which was a cement basletball court sort of area, where some chairs were set up.

We started out with about 20 kids, and Ellie told the story in Spanish [I was so impressed!]. We had some paper plates and paper fish and bread with glue dots on the back, and Josiah and David helped hand them out, while Ellie gave the instructions to stick them onto the plate. We thought we were in good shape, until the kids started coming out of the woodwork, or more accurately, the cement! We had enough craft materials for 50 kids, and ran out very quickly. Of course, since we got here so late last night and left so early this morning, we didn't have time to go through our many bags of donations, so we only had our personal backpacks, and Ellie and I were rooting through them looking for anything to give away! Ellie had a journal that she'd been planning to use to record the trip in, and ended up ripping every single page out of it, making paper airplanes for the kids who didn't get the "platos." I sat down nearby and started to help, but kept getting interrupted by a boy around 10 years old poking me and rattling on incomprehensibly. Sorry, Senora, I'm off to a rough start! Finally Ellie heard him and busted out laughing, saying, "Mom! He says you should watch how I do it, because your planes don't fly!" It was a very funny moment! Eventually, we used the last piece of paper and it was time to head back up the hill, which I was NOT looking forward to!

On our way up, we stopped to pray for a family in their house. The house is literally falling off the hill, with a hole in the floor that you can see down several feet, but that is the least of their problems. The widow has a seven year old daughter who has a huge tumor on her back. It's about the size of a toddler's nerf football, growing right out of her back, and she is about the size of a two year old. Apparently, she can walk, but is shy, so her mother held her. She asked us to pray for her, and said that she knew we were in her house because God sent us. The custom is for everyone to pray aloud at once, which was a little awkward for the Hartlanders at first, but we caught on quickly. It was a very moving few minutes, and many of us were in tears by the end. We ended up giving her some money to try to get the little one to a doctor, which she has never been able to do. The poor thing doesn't even know what is wrong, because they've never had enough money to even have it checked out. The poverty is discouraging and depressing on one hand, but the optimism and joy of the people is inspiring.

After the ghetto, we split into two groups. Kevin, Shane, and Evan went with Ashley to the Dump and Limonada to check out some jobs for the week, which are various and daunting! The rest of us went to Antigua, the oldest city in Guatemala, about an hour's drive from Dorie's. We had lunch at a local restaurant, walked around the city for a while, and went to a little market. Yes, Ana, Micah, and Matt, we got you some presents today - you're gonna like them! Before we headed back to the city, we drove up a hill to see a stone cross, really high above the city with the volcanic mountains in the background. [Many of us took some much-needed naps on the ride back!]

A pizza party with the Dorie's kids was on the plan for tonight, and Ron said with a satisfied grin, "I think we wound them up sufficiently tonight!" as the special mothers herded them off to bed and left us to our pizza!

It was amazing to walk into Casa 6 this morning and be mobbed by kids, reaching to hug us and climb on us. There were many familiar faces for me, and Brayan [maybe 10?] remembered me when I said we'd been here two years ago. I got a lot of kisses and some really good hugs, which made me miss MY kids a little bit more! You guys better save some great hugs for me when we get back home.

Well, it's time for devotions, we're cleaning up the kitchen and winding down for the night. Tomorrow the real work begins, the construction projects both in the dump and at Dorie's. From my understanding tonight, the Limonada project is more than we expected, so I think some decisions will be made tomorrow about our actual projects. Some of us will be working here at Dorie's, too, and of course, PLAYING with some KIDS! Stay tuned.....

[Gotta go, I'm missing the discussion about where to put the toilet paper and proper bathroom etiquette - would you believe that here you CAN'T FLUSH TOILET PAPER?!?!]

...Amy