Hola! Katie and
Emily here. We have just returned
home after an amazing, adventurous whirlwind of a trip! We met SO many kind and welcoming
people in Paraguay and had so many great experiences. Last week we had the most eye opening experience we had on
our trip and one I’m sure we’ll never forget.
As some of you know, we collected children’s clothing before
we left to distribute to needy children in Paraguay. During our trip, we visited “the people under the bridge” to
take clothes to a few children whose homes Bill and Chelsey had visited
before. We knew that the barrio
under the bridge was a very poor area, but nothing could have prepared us for
the way these people live. The
streets are covered in garbage and broken glass. These same streets are where we saw so many children running
around and playing among piglets, chickens and stray dogs. The homes are just a few feet apart
from one another and are tiny shacks without electricity or running water. Oftentimes they’re only one room
structures and may not have a door, but some boards nailed together that can be
moved in front of the doorway to create a bit of privacy instead.
We wandered around the barrio with Madre Magdelana, visiting
with families and passing out suckers to children for a good while before
coming to one of the homes with children whom we knew needed clothing. This family consists of 4 children, 2
of them being twin boys who are in Bill’s preschool class, an older sister, an
older brother and their mother and father. They were showing us their new house, which was one small
room, about 9 x 9 and had 2 twin sized beds pushed side-by-side in the
home. Only one of the beds had a
mattress. We were welcomed into
the home by the twins (4 years-old), their 7 year-old sister and their
mother. We chatted with them all
for an hour or so and watched the boys jump on the bed, pretending to be
monkeys and wrestle around with their sister, all just acting like totally
normal, happy children. Towards
the end of our visit Bill told their mother that we had a small gift for the
boys. We didn’t have their
sister’s clothing sizes at the time but she’ll get a clothing delivery soon as
well. The twins each
received 3 new pairs of pants and 3 shirts. They were so excited and thankful for their new “ropas” and
I think we were equally as excited to see the pleasure they got from them.
We had two major takeaways from our experience with the
people under the bridge.
1.) We had
never seen such sad living conditions. What we saw was like a scene out of a movie that you don’t
ever expect to see for yourself.
2.) Regardless
of the environment in which these people live, they are still perfectly happy,
normal people. The twins’ mom made
a comment that will forever stay with us.
She said, “It is good for you all to see this. You don’t have places like this in your country.” We were both struck and saddened by her
statement because although she is absolutely correct, we had no idea that she
was aware of how different her way of life is from ours here. Although her family has so few material
possessions, they are still just a happy family who are grateful for what they
do have.
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