good day

today was so great... i decided to go on foot to the dump this morning, since i didnt know what i was going to do exactly. i walked to the entrance where i ran into some familiar faces, a couple guys who are paid to clean up the streets outside the dump. They called me over to talk, and i did so for about a half hour. they asked me if i was a christian, and i said that yes, i was. one guy said that he was pentacostal, but that he just couldn't keep himself from sinning. he said that his sin was fornication, and he went on about how he has three girls right now, plus prostitutes that he gets every once in a while. he was all smiles, but i just wanted to punch him right in the face. i can only hope that he's not buying the little girls from La Chureca, but i guess it doesn't really matter who is, because it's happening. it felt really strange looking into the eyes of the enemy. he saw nothing wrong with it, and it actually seemed like he was bragging about it. to think that these precious girls are selling themselves to monsters like him just rips my heart out. i guess the part of the day talking to them wasn't that great, but i did find out some more about the economy of the dump.

I asked them if it was true what i'd been told about the middlemen marking up the prices like that. i told them about the kids that sold iron for one peso per pound, and they told me that the man they sell to only takes the stuff about four blocks away and sells it for 180 pesos per quintal, which is a hundred pounds. so, i guess the middlemen don't mark it up nearly as bad as i thought. they told me that the plastic bottles might have a higher mark up on them, but that might be because they transport them farther to sell.

Once i left the street cleaners, i walked down a little neighborhood street just to see who i'd run into. i walked past a number of houses until i heard my name called from my left. i looked in, and sure enough there was a small group of kids from the dump school. I didn't know that so many lived outside the dump, but there were about 15 kids who all lived nearby in this little street outside La Chureca. I was given the nicest chair to sit in, and the grandmother of some of the kids, who is a cook in the dump school, had her granddaughter andrea go and buy some soda and pico for us. pico is that good bread with sugar and cheese. i sat and talked with her and her son, who was the father of andrea and david, two students at Esperanza. after about an hour, i was given a plate of beans, rice, and tortillas which was excellent, followed by a glass of water to wash it down. i don't know how much the family had, but it was so generous of them to offer me so much. i spent about a total of two and a half hours sitting and talking with the family, and then i went out into the street to play with the kids. i was a human jungle gym for about 15 minutes, and i said goodbye and continued walking down the street to see who else i'd run into. there was a few kids playing catch with old, beat-up gloves and a ball made of tightly packed plastic bags. they asked if i wanted to play baseball, and we played for an hour or two. in the street they play with only home plate and two bases, one on each side of the road. it was one of the most fun baseball games i've ever played, but i haven't played too many.

Now i'm here at the coffee shop, where i just finished talking with deanna and dane about la chureca. dane is a christian guy from Mana Project, a non-profit down here that does some work with the clinic in La Chureca. he's also the guy i went surfing with with brad on tuesday. he invited me to go again with him tomorrow morning, so i'll be hitting the waves with him at 6 tomorrow. we'll come back by noon, and later in the evening i'm going to come back to the coffee shop where there will be a Chureca art exhibition, where people will be buying art done by the kids in the dump. they have an art class that they do outside la chureca, and apparently have quite a number of pieces that they're going to sell tomorrow. inbetween surfing and the art exhibit, i think i might go meet some people Orlando wants to introduce me to. Orlando is the guy who was driving Brad Corrigan's group around, and he wants me to meet a bunch of his wife's girlfriends who are students at UCA, the university where Esmir studies. I dont know if i really want to be hooked up, but he wants me to meet them so i might do that.