Another World

Photos by Joe Walenciak

I never really know what to think when I am at the Guatemala City garbage dump. I just don't know how this can happen in today's world and in a country where there is wealth. Half of the people of Guatemala live in extreme poverty, and thousands of those are guajeros at the garbage dump in Guatemala City. The truck pulls in and people "claim" it by walking alongside with their hand on the side. The truck stops and begins to tilt the box.  Everyone is lined up. When the box gets about halfway up, the driver starts lunging the truck forward to dump everything out. People dive in...looking for treasure. These are not employees of the city. They are people who are given permission to scavenge in the dump for whatever they can find. It is a competition for the trash, and for their efforts, they make an average of only a few dollars each day. There are hazards on all sides...the mountains of trash that sometime collapse and bury the workers, the dangerous interplay between heavy equipment and people, and the filth of the trash itself. And as they keep filling in the dump, the give the new "land" to the people to build houses...shelters made of materials salvaged from the dump. It is a hygiene nightmare and a forgotten place. People live and die here, unobserved by the world. Children lose their fathers to accidents, disease, gang violence, and abuse of alcohol and drugs. They also lose their childhoods in many tragic ways.

The best vantage point to view the dump is from the General City Cemetery in the heart of Guatemala City. It is a massive property surrounded by a high wall. People are laid to rest in small mausoleums or (for the less well off) in galleries. The grounds are not well kept. As you travel to the back of the cemetery, you find a cliff...one of the walls of the dump. Cemeteries in Guatemala are often backed up against these ravines because it is a good way to dispose of waste or the remains of someone whose family did not pay for them to remain in one of the galleries. As you approach the back, you also find the roosting place of countless vultures that also scavenge in the dump along the people. Wading through weeds, vultures, and vacated tombs, you suddenly encounter an extraordinary view of the dump. The whole experience is a bizarre combination of death, decay, and dumped garbage.

It is another world...one in which I think I would probably not survive, except but by the grace of God. Speaking of which, in the midst of all of this, God is clearly at work here loving his people. With my own eyes, I have seen amazing examples of God's provision for these people, and I have come to know many extraordinary people of tremendous faith. The story of the widow's mite is true. The poor give from their hearts in sacrificial ways with no conditions or assumptions that they will guide someone else's development. They give because they love, and they give because they know the pain of the other person. Just like God gave to us--because He loved us and because (through the life of Jesus Christ) he truly knew our pain. In so many ways, the giving of the poor is the clearest reflection of God's heart and giving. 

Our JBU team is here for the next week. I ask for your prayers as we try to love as God loves.

Check back for reports.

Blessings,

Joe