Wow, what an incredible, eye-opening day yesterday was, although I’m hesitant to use the word incredible because it implies something good. Maybe better to say it was an “incredibly eye-opening day.”
We arrived at Myra’s to find a garage full of mothers, some grandmothers, and a lot of kids ranging from about 2-years-old to around 12-years old. Someone asked “who wants to work with the kids?” and I volunteered immediately. We went to Myra’s back yard and played games, colored, and generally had a great time. I especially enjoyed trying to show a young girl of, I’m guessing, about 8-years-old how to play rock-paper-scissors. We also had candy and gum to give out and the kids liked that a lot.
Here’s a picture of Emma with one of the kids we played with.
Emma with Rock-Paper-Scissors competitor
After the service, and being done coloring with the little ones, the food distribution was done and the families left. Basically the women are called by name to come up and get some food, they’re given corn and black beans. For some of these families this food distribution is the only food they have; I think it’s done twice a week. After they collected their food distribution, VBS was over all all the women and children left.
This girl is 12-years-old and carrying the bag of corn and beans on her head. She comes brought her 2-year-old sister today.
12-year-old with food bag
Our next activity was to go out to some of the “homes” and wrap them. This is very interesting for the uninitiated. The people that Myra ministers to are literally dirt poor. Like poor as in poverty-poor, like the poor from Slumdog Millionaire. And their homes are either adobe a buildings with corrugated metal roofs, or “lean-tos” with three “walls” of plastic sheeting. The plastic is like a really heavy duty garbage bag and comes in rolls about 100′ long. So what we did is cut plastic to the right length, then tie it to a top beam that supports the roof, and to the post holding up the roof.
Here’s a picture of me about to tie the plastic to the roof beam of the first house we visited; on the other side of the plastic is a small dresser and two beds.
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Oh well, the Internet connection here is not so good and I can’t upload the picture. I’ll try again later. Anyway, we spent the afternoon going to different houses/shacks replacing plastic sheeting.
The families we encountered were surprisingly happy – the kids especially so, as our teens carried backpacks full of Jolly Ranchers, chewing gum and lollipops to hand out. We all had a grand time playing with the kids while others in our group were hanging the plastic, then we moved on to another shack.
Very hot and dirty work. And smelly! By the end of the day I was extremely tired and happy to have a hotel room with a working shower, A/C, and a bed!