Tortillas and beans......: CAG Workday

I am going to go way back to November and blog about some blog-worthy things. First on my list is the CAG workday that we had. WOW, this seems like such a long time ago. My friend Kelly organized a group to go down to a pretty rough neighborhood and do some work mixing concrete and laying two concrete floors for people's homes down there. There was a group of about 12 of us that worked with the staff of Young Life down here that headed down on a Sunday morning. We had a beautiful day and worked hard! We had to shovel gravel and sand into wheelbarrows, wheel it down the alley, mix it with water and cement mix, and then shovel the mix into buckets to be laid in the floors of the homes. It was tough work but it was such a reality check to see how so many people truly live here in Guatemala. We get such a skewed (no idea if that is spelled right!!) view of life in Guatemala based on our lives here and those of the students we teach as well. It was a hard day but very well worth it. I don't even know how to describe this area where we were working. The small spaces that are the homes of these folks are just lining these alleys. You will also run into small stores where they do their shopping. These are probably the same types of stores that are supported through organizations such as KIVA and others. Most of the people that lived in this neighborhood worked at the "dump." If you haven't heard about this, google Guatemala dump and you will find much to read about. It is very interesting. They HUGE city dump is a place where thousands of people work and sort through trash every day. They pull out all the recycleables and get money for them, also while helping the environment and amount of waste here in Guatemala. Overall, it seems to be a seemingly positive thing for the country, despite the filthy work conditions and the fact that people take their kids there all day and there have been people that died from landslides in the dump. If you are really interested there is a great documentary called "Recycled Life" in regards to the Guatemala City Dump. There is much to read up on it. Anyway, we were working very near to the dump. Here are a few pictures from that day.

Kelly shoveling away!