Wednesday

After breakfast with our host families, we headed to the Dreamer Center for Mass with the kids in the chapel. Again, I sat next to Manuel and William. As I walked into the chapel, William waved for me to come and sit next to him, so I did. With the kids, Mass is chaos. But like yesterday, everyone had a good time.

Next, we hopped into the back of the pickups and headed out to our work sites again. Things went well today, for the most part. I shoveled and mixed concrete for the floor while the girls hauled buckets of concrete to Edgar, who poured and smoothed the concrete floor. Miralda (?) was helpful again today, hauling small buckets of concrete just like the big girls .

Eventually, we began working with wood, putting up the walls. While nailing one of the boards, I hammered my thumb. It hurt a great deal and looked pretty bad. There was lots of blood and pain, but it is feeling better now. Here's our progress at the end of the day:

Soon after we got a couple of the walls framed up, it started to rain. As we stood under a piece of corrugated metal, out of the rain, the difficulty of life here became very clear. Lightning struck nearby as a raging river formed in what one could consider this family's living room. Water began to run underneath the wall of the main "shack," where a few of the family members were at the time . The mother panicked and ran behind the shack. She tried in vain to build a dam out of mud to stop the water as the rain continued to pour down.

After the downpour stopped a few minutes later, we all walked down the flooded, muddy yard to the street. The street had become a fast flowing, muddy river (pictured above). I could hear rocks and large pieces of garbage bouncing in the current, scraping on the cobblestones.

The recent (last year?) hurricane that destroyed many homes here must have been just like this, but nonstop for weeks. The hillsides liquefied and mudslides ensued. I can see how it would happen, and it must have been terrible.

Yet these, the poorest of the poor, were laughing in the streets. They were busily shoveling the accumulating garbage and mud back into the current so it would continue to flow downhill, past their doorways.

The family's front yard became a swamp. We agreed that this was horrible. It's a blessing that these people are such (apparent?) optimists, that they don't give up.

After getting a ride back to the Dreamer Center I was told to get my thumb cleaned and medicated to prevent infection. Consequently, I was a patient in the Dreamer Center clinic. I'm glad the injury wasn't something serious.

After supper tonight, some of the St. Mary's students, chaperones, and I went to a homeless shelter that is run by the God's Child Project. Soon after we arrived, some homeless people began to arrive. I sat and visited with a man named Miguel, nicknamed "Snail" by his friends . He told me he is addicted to marijuana and some other drugs. He'd spent the last three nights on the streets. Somewhere, he has 4 or 5 kids. But he's "crazy" as he puts it. The poor man is only 29 years old.

Soon other people, mostly men, arrived. Many of them were severely intoxicated and filthy. Our group then began handing out bowls of soup, glasses of milk, and pieces of bread to these people . They were very happy to see us and to get a meal. This was a powerful experience for many of the kids on the pilgrimage. We got to see poverty and drug addiction first hand, if only for a few minutes.