Nicaragua

I found that my first visit to La Chureca, (please see early entries of my blog for a description of the Chureca) proved to be very emotionally difficult, but now I want to go back weekly. After the initial shock of observing how people live amongst the mounds of garbage, I was eager to put myself back in the place that made me so uncomfortable. If people can live there every day I can surely work their once a week. The children that visit the Los Quinchos building day after day were the magnets who drew me back. I spent five hours last Thursday counting, coloring, and working on the “homework” the children were assigned at school. I was glad to see that some of them were regularly attending the available school nearest to the Chureca.

Walter, the child I have become most attached to, spent over an hour coloring and talking to meabout the pictures in the coloring book. It is clear how intelligent he is, and I hope he continues to be the motivated child he appears to be. The Quinchos program instills work ethic, support, and hope for these children that would otherwise have little more than trash to go through and non-supportive families to go home to.