Land slide

This past Friday was my last day. I went to work the morning in the Guarderia with the younger children. The building is located closer to the walled in part of the dump than the main building. We were just getting set up for the kids to come when a sudden wave of putrid air wafted up from the dump. Like I mentioned earlier, you can smell the dump from the project, especially after there has been rain. However, this was a particularly strong smell and came on so suddenly. All of us covered our noses and mouths with our shirts, and looked for some sort of mask. We settled for some paper towel from the bathroom to place over our faces and filter the air. The smell lingered, and was actually getting stronger in intensity. It gave us all headaches, made us feel sick to our stomachs, nauseous and then when we started hearing sirens, very concerned. At first it was just one or two police or ambulance sirens, but more and more fire trucks were entering zone three and seemed to be heading towards the garbage dump, where 95% of the safe passage student's parents work. We later found out that a large section of the dump experienced a landslide as a result of all the rain we have been getting. There were people working both above and below the area affected by the landslide. Some were buried alive, including at least four children, 2 around age 12 and 2 under age 10. Despite the fact that children are not legally permitted to enter the dump since the walls were erected after the 2005 fire, and all persons who work in the dump have to acquir an id card (which costs them 40 quetzales) it is not always enforced. I am still unsure of the numbers due to the fact that the media is not always reliable, but I gather that somewhere between 14 and 40 people were killed. (some sources say as many as 50, others only account for 5). The lack in reliable information is also due to the fact that those who were lost in the dump might not ever be found. There are many toxic gasses, methane gas and pollutants that cause the bodies to be destroyed and disintegrate in the trash. It was a very tense day because the students were all worried about their parents and family.

Fortunately by the end of the day Barbara, the executive director, had visited the site, and spoken with the families of the children who attend safe passage. NONE of their parents had been harmed!!!! And the children of safe passage were all safely at school or within the projects walls.

Like I said before, it gives me shivers every time I think about where these kids would be if the project didn't exist. But it does exist, and saved lives on friday. Many of the parents were walking their children to the project the time the landslide took place, additionally most of them work in the upper part of the dump that was unaffected by the disaster.

I spent the day working (playing:) with the young kids. We kept them inside for longer than usual and limited their time on the outside jungle gym because of the horrible smell.

I had really mixed feelings this last day- especially in light of the event. Yaelle the volunteer coordenator, brought in a cake to offer me a despedida at lunch, and here are all the volunteers pictured.

By the end of the day after breathing in what ever was in the air my lungs were feeling really tight and I was worried about asthma reactions, I had a headache, but I got to go back to Antigua. All the kids were still in zone 3 of Guatemala city being exposed to the toxic smell, and I felt guilty being safe. It is astonishing to me that they don't have more respiratory problems. I love Maine and am so happy to be home (I arrived in time to celebrate my mother's birthday) know that there is still so much more that needs to be done. While camino seguro helps over 500 kids, there are more in need. Reflecting back on my time at the project I recognize the actual work is easy, but that thinking about it is the challenge. Spending time with the kids is so rewarding, but once they have stolen your heart you can't help but worry about them.

My last morning in Guatemala I rode one of the public busses. I happened to sit next to a man who worked for a bus tour bus company that many times took the children on excursions when Hanley was still alive. It was really interesting hearing about his experiences with the project, and to share with him how much the project has continued to grow in the past years. I hope it continues, and pray that these and all the children who face such huge challenges learn to grow up with hope, and find real opportunity and full lives.