I went to the dump in Granada, Nicaragua for the first time in two years today. As my team and I exited the vehicle, flies, stench, heat and smoke accosted us in ways they’d never experienced.After about thirty minutes of dealing with the initial shock, we walked into the trash heaps and spoke with the workers. Among them were buzzards, dogs and a single cow. A couple of guys on my team and I found a little girl and started asking her questions.
She’d been working there for a year, but has only two years left.
She goes to school at night and works at the dump during the day.
She works there with her parents.
She wants to be a cook when she grows up.
Her name is Maricela.
There were about twenty other children working in the dump with her. Some as young as seven years old. They haven’t been working there long enough to realize they probably won’t grow up to be a fireman, teacher or cook. Like their parents, this will probably be their life.
At Kingdom Dreams, we help launch people into their dreams. It’s completely heartbreaking to see dreams die in the trash heaps of Granada.
I left thinking that someone should pay special attention to these kids’ dreams. Maybe one of the kids on this mission trip. Perhaps one day I will.
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Heartbreaking to think of anyone living off of others trash, but children…
Thanks for sharing, Seth (and Seth). Working in the trash dumps broke my heart for the people, especially the children. And what you said at the end is exactly what my dream is: to help launch kids like Maricela into her destiny and place in the Kingdom coming here on Earth. Thanks for what you guys do at Kingdom Dreams. It is truly making a difference; equipping people like me to actually go out and change lives through the Father’s love, instead of just thinking how cool it would be if that happened…
“Down in the dumps”….well, your previous posts had been about pain, so I figured this one was perhaps about depression. So I was thinking “blue” and didn’t expect “black” as in black smoke from the dumps. This was incredibly disturbing to read. And now every time something reminds me of cooking, I say a prayer for Maricela…
Thank you for sharing this, Seth.
I found this website just now when I googled on the dumps in nicaragua:
http://www.childrenofthedump.org.
“This website is about children living on city dumps around the world and a process to eliminate this horrible condition. A successful example and developing model for removing children from a city dump has evolved from Father Marco Dessy, an Italian missionary who has spent the past ten years trying to alleviate this problem from the city dump in Chinandega, Nicaragua. For the purpose of this website, successfully removing a child from a city dump starts with the child’s education and nutrition and only ends when the entire community reaches financial independence. This is a complete and total process. One way to successfully reduce poverty and children at risk is through education leading to financial sustainability.”