by Rebecca
21. January 2016 06:53
You arrive at The Dump and the stench doesn’t really get you at first. It’s when you leave the “Vina” and start walking through the neighborhood that it starts to hit you. Even at the “Lower Dump” (point further away from the actual dumping ground), you can see the garbage everywhere and water flowing down the dirt streets that smell like god-awful fecal matter. You see bugs, birds, dogs, and stray cats everywhere.
I guess what surprised me is how much humanity I saw. You would walk by houses that have all of this garbage and sewage surrounding it but women furiously cleaning their house or men working to repair their house. They were not content to be lazy and really worked to clean their houses. It makes me think of Dallas houses – beautiful on the outside and dirty or empty on the inside. All about appearances. In the dump, they work to clean from the inside out. They know their priorities.
It’s interesting how my first reaction is to act like a clown – to yell at people all the way down the street, hand out stickers, or to goof around if I feel that we are losing the attention of the audience. It’s in my nature but it feels like there is a missing element without the clowns. Missions is possible without clowns but man, they sure bring a lot of people.
We did the show and Jorge and one of his clowns had the opportunity to perform the new skit the “Your Special Gift.” Jorge began by filling a cup of water and then began to “cook” as he had the part of the baker. However, he worked in splashing the water all over the kids – which of course made them squeal and giggle. Krishna played the construction worker who could not find their talent until the end. We actually did the skit without music (and without words) but all of the kids were able to grasp the meaning.
The rest of the day was more of an opportunity to serve in other functions, to pray, and to observe. If I had to end this with an observation – I would say that I was glad to have seen it out of make-up and to serve in other ways. It gave me a way to see beyond the swarm of kids around the clown but to see the people. These beautiful people that I respect, working hard to survive.
