Today was a day we all knew would be hard. The theme was Poverty Day, which is not an easy topic, no matter who’s talking. We woke up on the early side to be at breakfast by 7, quickly eating so we could talk about our Question of the Day. Our QoTD: What is poverty? It was a seemingly simple question, but as our day unfolded, it proved more and more difficult to define.
Our first activity of the day was taking our bus to Las Hormiguitas to hear a speaker. Las Hormiguitas is an organization that provides education and help to people that are in need. We met volunteers and graduates who spoke and worked with us in our next activity: traveling to the dump of Matagalpa and spending the day with people who have no choice but to make that dump their home.
We headed to our bus, bringing along the mobile school that Las Hormiguitas created for people who have no access to education. We spent the rest of our morning in piles of what people in a better situation would call garbage, but what was really a home to many. We pulled up amongst piles of plastic bottles and broken glass, a plethora of vultures pecking at things most of us didn’t want to think about. Dotted around the dump were people poking through the trash trying to find anything they could use to help provide food for themselves and their families. As we set up the little cart of a school, children appeared, as well as teens and adults wanting to practice their English. Clean water was poured into bottles found around the dump. This simple act, which seemed unsanitary at first, was made understandable and distressing when we realized that these people bathe and drink from a stream filled with waste runoff from nearby farms. We passed out food and a drink to every person we could find, and as the food came out, even more people appeared. Children ran barefoot around a dump filled with glass, razors, and needles. The conditions were appalling, and there was little we could do. A Glimpser, Nina, gave the shirt off her back to a child wearing nothing but pants filled with tears. Questioning what poverty is truly defined as, we discovered how we live in a bubble where it’s normal to to spend 5 dollars a day on a cup of coffee while these people fight as hard as they can to make even 20 cordoba a day to feed themselves, which translates to roughly 70 cents in US dollars. Our bubbles have been popped.
We headed back to our hostel to decompress and discuss what we had seen and how it compared to our own lives. The prospect of eating gallo pinto with most meals didn’t seem so bad, or bad at all when we realized how little these people get to eat every day, and how they fight for the bites they take. Leaving food on our plates was impossibly difficult. Poverty seems now to be what we had seen today: the lowest of the low, living in survival mode, eating rice as a meal for every meal because it’s 4 cordoba a pound. Living in what everyone else has deemed worthless, garbage, when the human beings living there are anything but.
Despite the pain and sadness that came along with our trip to the dump, we prepped for our English classes with local students and headed out. We walked to the school and taught our respective classes our lessons for the days, bonding with the small girl who is very chispa (sassy), playing games for dulces (candy), and fending off flirtatious students wanting you to be their jana (girlfriend). The day was full of sadness and despair, but an overwhelming feeling of hope and desire to make change. Smiles and laughter ended our day, with lots of Big Love to go around and our Unity Clap shouting the word “Change”, expressing our wishes and hopes to make a difference with the small time we have.
Shoutout to my fam-damily: Mom and Dad and Briana, I love you all so much and I’m thinking of you. I totally expect you to comment on this so I can connect to you just a little bit. Also to AG: I love you lots.
Wow, what a humbling experience. Your trip to this “dump” will probably not save anyone from a life of poverty; it will probably not change anyone’s life- except your own…
So proud of you Mads! Have fun on your free day tomorrow. I’m not riding so I will have my phone in hand waiting for your call. Be safe.
Mom
Callie,
It was good to read your post. We are glad for your opportunity to spend time with these families. We have much to learn from those who face such challenges. We love you too and are looking forward to hearing more stories when you get home. We hope your remaining time there continues to be as eye-opening as this day was.
Love,
Mom and Dad
Callie,
It was good to read about your day’s activity and what a sobering experience it is to see how people like you, and like me, have to live in the midst of broken glass and garbage. There’s a violence to poverty.
I was heartened to read the affirmation of your group for change. May you/we change the world.
Love,
Barb
Thank you Callie for some very fine writing about an impossibly difficult topic. Wow! Good to pop our bubbles and take a look at reality. Thanks for helping me do that. Love ya, Em
Oh my dear Callie, so good to get a peek at what you are learning about. You captured so well how humbling and hard it is to get a closer look at this kind of poverty. Sending lots of love from Canada as you sit with all that you are learning and seeing!
Callie, Your dad sent me your blog about going to the dump site. Your wrote so clearly and passionately about this key experience. To be able to actually spend a day living with the poorest of the poor is invaluable learning. I’m grateful that you have this opportunity to live and grow in a different culture. I look forward to many more stories when you return. Much love from Grandma Pat and Grandpa Russ.
Callie,
I’m Jimmy’s grandmother and I just wanted you to know how moved I was reading about the experiences of this day! Poverty is not an easy topic to talk about but you capture all the emotions that someone feels about it. Well done! Say hi to Jimmy for me…
Mrs. Vitulli
Callie,it is not easy to visit such difficult living conditions. Reflections after doing so run the gamut from feeling overwhelmed, appalled and despairing to hopefulness and deep, life- changing soul-searching. You did an excellent job of sharing your experience with us. I’m glad that you have this amazing opportunity to learn from and give to people who have such challenging living conditions. I will be interested to hear more from you when you return! Love and prayers, Mary
Nana and Papa
Hi, Callie. Papa and I were glad to read your blog about your trip to the dump. We can only imagine what a hard sight that was to see — such poverty, with people of all ages, gleaning whatever they could for subsistence! That is so sad. I know you and your group must have been a bright spot in the children’s day to have your friendship and love. An experience like this really gives meaning to what we, who have so much, can do to help those who have so little. You’re doing God’s work, Callie!
Love, Nana and Papa
Hi Marilyn,
Poverty is not something we like to see, nor is it something that you and I live. It is unfotunate that this is reality, and it is everywhere. This experience will open up a lot of eyes and hearts. Love you, girl.
Annie
Callie!
My dear sister!
I am just reading this now, as you are making your way home to a world that is light years away from the one that you’ve experienced these last few weeks. You are so strong, that you go into the places full of poverty (how would you define it now?)and experience it with your open eyes and see it all. Your description is so raw-I can only imagine what the rest of the trip must’ve felt like. I can’t wait to see how all these experiences have affected you and will continue to affect you as you fight for change wherever you go. I know you’ve got some great stories and I am so excited to hear them. You rock the world (and mine too).
So much love to you,
Bri