Today met up with a group from my college. In order to graduate, students must spend three weeks in another culture, so there is a group about 30 people here. It was nice to see some familiar faces and to talk to people in English! We met in the National cemetery for a ministry there that works with local kids. The kids parents work in the cemetery and the kids have nothing to do during the day while their parents work. So the ministry meets every Saturday and plays with the kids and feeds them lunch.
The cemetery was huge, with these big tombs all over the place. There were some big tombs that were for particular families and then big walls that were just rows and rows of tombs. A lot of it was very pretty. In Guatemala, the people try to celebrate the lives of the dead instead of mourning their death. So, much of the cemetery is very beautiful.
Liz was guiding the group (30+ Spring Arbor people) through the cemetery. On the far end of the cemetery was the city dump. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of vultures flying everywhere. We reached the edge of this big cliff and overlooked the dump. The smell was terrible. The dump went on forever.
The dump is very well known for its scavengers--10,000+ people that work in the dump looking for items of value. These people make anywhere from 2-5 dollars a day. Though it is now “prohibited”, many people (and families) still live in the dump. Also, they have no sanitation regulations. 2,000 tons of garbage is dumped per day and is then scavenged by thousands of people.
It was a heartbreaking sight. It makes me sick that this kind of thing happens. How can so many people live with such wealth and simply let others suffer like this?
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