Today we visited Amor del Nino founded by Steve and Shyrel Osborn. This is an orphanage primarily for special needs children. Many were abandoned and left to die but for the mercy of Amor del Nino. You can only begin to imagine the tragic story that nearly each child has to tell, but as the photos attest, the lives of these children are now filled with comfort, love and acceptance plus stories of astounding growth and progress.
The next stop on our "tour" was the city dump.
The dump in Guatemala City sits below a cemetery: what a paradise for vultures.
Countless truckloads of trash are dumped here every day and countless numbers of people scavenge through the trash hoping to find something they can salvage and sell for a few quetzels. Many children have been killed rummaging through the trash so laws were finally enforced that prohibit children from entering the dump.
Life and death take on strangely similar appearances in Guatemala.
Sally, Christian and I also made the trek to Chichicastenango......to visit Christina.
Christina, now in her 20s, has spina bifida. She was "adopted" by Hands of Hope and a local family in Warsaw about ten years ago and brought to the US to have surgery so that she could walk.
Once we made the drive down the steep, narrow, bumpy, serpentine road into the valley where Christina lives, we had to get out and walk the rest of the way.
It was about half a mile to her house on a well-worn path, but . . .
Did we turn at the right corn stalk???
Fortunately, two of Christina's sisters came to meet us and lead us the rest of the way. (Even in remote areas of Third World countries there are cell phones.)
Christina is the oldest of eight children. Her father left eight months ago to find work in the US and has not been heard from since. Her 16-year old brother is now the man of the house. He and his mother are working hard to try to support the family. We found Christina working on some embroidery which I assume she sells. She is able to walk with crutches and has remained fairly healthy, but rarely leaves the house because of their remote location.
For Christina, it is a very small world.
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