Greetings to all!
Yesterday our group had the opportunity to visit the city dump. The dump was basically a once beautiful ravine filled almost to the top with garbage. The smell was overwhelming and there were vultures swarming everywhere. The most shocking thing were the throngs of people digging through the garbage, trying to find something valuable to sell so that they could survive. We were told that people once lived practically in the dump and that children too took part in this money making scheme. This is illegal now but we wondered where those people went and what those children are up to now. It was an emotional visit.
After we had the oppotunity to visit the dump we went to a huge mall. The idea was to show us the huge contrast between the social classes here. Coming directly from the dump where there was suffering all around us to something so North American and consumeristic was shocking. The mall was the biggest one that I had ever seen, more clean and proper than the ones at home. The stores were air conditioned and smelled too clean and new. I felt overwhelmed and kind of panicky to be in such a huge snobby place when we had just come from a place where people had nothing. It was hard for us to see such differences and to make sense of them. I think that this tour was a good learning opportunity for all of us and helped us to get a better view of the social situation here.
Christine
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Keep track of the happenings of this years' Enlace group
Welcome to Enlace!
Welcome to the Enlace 2008 blog! If you find yourself here on this site – you likely know a thing or two about the enlace program. However, if you don’t let me catch you up to speed.
Enlace is 5 week trip to Guatemala for teenagers. It’s a youth and young adult serving and learning program of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario http://mcc.org/ontario. While in Guatemala we focus on global learning, cross culture relationship building, faith formation, and serving alongside our Guatemalan brothers and sisters.
It’s thanks to our in country partners -MCC Guatemala and CASAS (http://www.semilla.org.gt/casas.html) that Enlace is the remarkable experience that it is.
Enlace is 5 week trip to Guatemala for teenagers. It’s a youth and young adult serving and learning program of Mennonite Central Committee Ontario http://mcc.org/ontario. While in Guatemala we focus on global learning, cross culture relationship building, faith formation, and serving alongside our Guatemalan brothers and sisters.
It’s thanks to our in country partners -MCC Guatemala and CASAS (http://www.semilla.org.gt/casas.html) that Enlace is the remarkable experience that it is.
1 comment:
What a powerful message you are all learning. I shared excerpts at church yesterday and it made us all rethink..... Thanks for giving of yourselves through words and living.
Be blessed; be a blessing.
Shirley Redekop
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