Yea! Breakthrough. Can't write much, but just wanted to share that we have seen great exciting progress here... Two churches have agreed to each adopt a slum community. This means they are committing to two years of involvement- spending time in the community, building relationships, trying to assess the greatest needs of the community, trying to meet those needs as well as teaching the people how to meet their needs themselves (empowerment/teaching skills/social networking etc). I love the vision of slum adoption, it is amazing what God can do through it. It has the potential to seriously meet physical, social, spiritual, mental and psychological needs. I am such a fan.
This will mean a much busier schedule, so keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Also, in follow up with Jantik- new mother. I have it on my heart to fundraise money for their hospital bill and to possibly buy them a new mattress- which I found out would only cost about $100-150 USD. Keep this in your thoughts and prayers.
until my next rushed entry hopefully a week from now...
thanks faithful readers!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Growing Gap
I spend most of my times here in the slums. Let me share a bit with you about what it is like and who I have been meeting.
I have done some traveling in my day, but let me tell you I have never seen this big of a contrast between the rich and the poor. Nor have I ever seen it in such proximity- what I mean is that the slums border the richest neighborhoods here. Yards, literally, separate one-room wooden shacks from mansions bigger than the ones you see along the Lake Michigan shore in Evanston. Many of the people in the slums have come to the city from the countryside in search of work, the grand life that city jobs provide. Unable to find jobs and unable to raise enough money to return home they end up living in these slums. The slums by the way are mostly illegal lands that the government threatens to bulldoze any minute while the people living in these awful spaces actually pay rent. Speaking of injustices, the corruption is so bad here that many teachers actually bribe the parents- if the parents want to see their children move to the next grade they have to pay the teacher. Most families in the slums cannot afford school past junior high. Yet every family I talk to emphasizes the importance of education, these parents starve so that their kids can go to school. From the information I've gathered I think it costs less than $100USD a month for a good education, but this sum is way way too high for these families to pay.
Just one quick introduction. I have been visiting a beautiful woman named Jantik. She just gave birth to her first baby, who they named Jordan. They are smiling and happy and so glad to have this little blessing. We gave her some nutritious milk mix for her to drink while she is breast feeding. Unfortunately she had to have last minute c-section and owes the hospital $500. This doesn't sound like much to us, but it is a huge debt. They have no way of paying it. I would also love to see them own a bed, or at least a mattress. They sleep on the floor and own two pillows. My heart's desire is for them to have something soft to sleep on with their baby. Praying into how these needs can be met.
There is so much need.... I am glad I am here. I am glad I am doing what I am doing. It is easy to get overwhelmed. Again, I remind myself: one person at a time. One at a time.
I have done some traveling in my day, but let me tell you I have never seen this big of a contrast between the rich and the poor. Nor have I ever seen it in such proximity- what I mean is that the slums border the richest neighborhoods here. Yards, literally, separate one-room wooden shacks from mansions bigger than the ones you see along the Lake Michigan shore in Evanston. Many of the people in the slums have come to the city from the countryside in search of work, the grand life that city jobs provide. Unable to find jobs and unable to raise enough money to return home they end up living in these slums. The slums by the way are mostly illegal lands that the government threatens to bulldoze any minute while the people living in these awful spaces actually pay rent. Speaking of injustices, the corruption is so bad here that many teachers actually bribe the parents- if the parents want to see their children move to the next grade they have to pay the teacher. Most families in the slums cannot afford school past junior high. Yet every family I talk to emphasizes the importance of education, these parents starve so that their kids can go to school. From the information I've gathered I think it costs less than $100USD a month for a good education, but this sum is way way too high for these families to pay.
Just one quick introduction. I have been visiting a beautiful woman named Jantik. She just gave birth to her first baby, who they named Jordan. They are smiling and happy and so glad to have this little blessing. We gave her some nutritious milk mix for her to drink while she is breast feeding. Unfortunately she had to have last minute c-section and owes the hospital $500. This doesn't sound like much to us, but it is a huge debt. They have no way of paying it. I would also love to see them own a bed, or at least a mattress. They sleep on the floor and own two pillows. My heart's desire is for them to have something soft to sleep on with their baby. Praying into how these needs can be met.
There is so much need.... I am glad I am here. I am glad I am doing what I am doing. It is easy to get overwhelmed. Again, I remind myself: one person at a time. One at a time.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Finally in the hot spot
It's hot here. And the food is spicy. Mmmmmmm. It's times like these that I am really grateful for the part of my upbringing that included annual trips to tropical Mexico. I am adapting remarkably well.
This place definitely is foreign. The buildings are missing floors because certain numbers are bad luck. The highways don't have lanes. The whole city shuts down for a couple days for Eid - the end of Ramadan celebration. There are no intersections or crosswalks. On most roads, if you want to turn across traffic you must find an opportunity to chuck a U-ey and then drive back a distance to the road you wanted to go down, resulting in repetitive turn arounds- back and forth, and back and forth. Al Gore would certainly find flaws in this system. At first we thought the taxis were trying to cheat us.. or severely confused. But then we understood that's just how the roads are. Trying to cross the street involves the wave of your hand and a prayer that you make it across alive. You can't wait till there is a break in traffic, or that the cars stop or slow down on their own, of you'll never cross the street. Seriously.
But surprisingly, I don't feel foreign here. Except for the constant reminders from the people -"buleh! buleh!" (westerner) they shout- I feel almost at home here. Ok, the language barrier is a bit of a reminder, too. But the point is I feel good here. It is tough being in the slums here though. There is nothing normal about that. People live in one room homes with no furniture, atop wooden piers that are constructed above highly polluted and littered water. They live next to dumps and among the dead rats and dead cats. The first family I interacted with was a couple who had lost their five year old daughter a couple months ago. She became sick and they took her to the better hospital but found out it they could not afford it. By the time they arrived at the public hospital she was already dead. It is difficult to sit there and listen, knowing that just outside this slum there is a HUGE megamall where people go every day to spend hundreds of dollars. It is difficult to try to explain why I believe in a God that is good. Most of all it is difficult to know that most likely, no matter what I do in these ten weeks I will not be able to bring her out of poverty, and I certainly won't be able to undo the injustice that cost her her child's life. But the trick to this do-gooder thing is to not fall under the same spirits that afflict those you've come to serve. If I give in to hopelessness, then this trip is finished. The key is to remember that one person helping one person can change the world... and that no matter how big the situation, my God is bigger.
This place definitely is foreign. The buildings are missing floors because certain numbers are bad luck. The highways don't have lanes. The whole city shuts down for a couple days for Eid - the end of Ramadan celebration. There are no intersections or crosswalks. On most roads, if you want to turn across traffic you must find an opportunity to chuck a U-ey and then drive back a distance to the road you wanted to go down, resulting in repetitive turn arounds- back and forth, and back and forth. Al Gore would certainly find flaws in this system. At first we thought the taxis were trying to cheat us.. or severely confused. But then we understood that's just how the roads are. Trying to cross the street involves the wave of your hand and a prayer that you make it across alive. You can't wait till there is a break in traffic, or that the cars stop or slow down on their own, of you'll never cross the street. Seriously.
But surprisingly, I don't feel foreign here. Except for the constant reminders from the people -"buleh! buleh!" (westerner) they shout- I feel almost at home here. Ok, the language barrier is a bit of a reminder, too. But the point is I feel good here. It is tough being in the slums here though. There is nothing normal about that. People live in one room homes with no furniture, atop wooden piers that are constructed above highly polluted and littered water. They live next to dumps and among the dead rats and dead cats. The first family I interacted with was a couple who had lost their five year old daughter a couple months ago. She became sick and they took her to the better hospital but found out it they could not afford it. By the time they arrived at the public hospital she was already dead. It is difficult to sit there and listen, knowing that just outside this slum there is a HUGE megamall where people go every day to spend hundreds of dollars. It is difficult to try to explain why I believe in a God that is good. Most of all it is difficult to know that most likely, no matter what I do in these ten weeks I will not be able to bring her out of poverty, and I certainly won't be able to undo the injustice that cost her her child's life. But the trick to this do-gooder thing is to not fall under the same spirits that afflict those you've come to serve. If I give in to hopelessness, then this trip is finished. The key is to remember that one person helping one person can change the world... and that no matter how big the situation, my God is bigger.
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