Safe Passage

"Visiting Safe Passage entails risk, including risk of sickness, accident, theft, robbery, and/or assault, which in extreme cases could result in rape or death."  These and other haunting words on the one-page release form made me wonder what kind of field trip Sister Duncan had arranged for us.  I signed the waiver, watched a brief video about the Safe Passage program and boarded the bus along with other sister missionaries.

Circling ravens and stench in the air soon let me know that we were nearing our destination.  As our bus crawled toward the city dump, garbage cluttered the streets, spilling out of houses and filling front yards.

Even in this chaos, a few families went to great effort to wash clean clothes and maintain a sense of order.

It is not known exactly how many families hide and live in the Guatemala City dump illegally, but approximately three thousands people make their living by "going to work" in these squalid conditions, searching with bare hands through medical waste, household trash and industrial chemicals; hoping to find anything to eat or sell.  They find very little of value.  By the time the refuse reaches the dump, the trash has already been picked over three times by various garbage collectors.  Some children sort through trash along side their parents.

Other kids are far more fortunate.  Thanks to private donations, these children and teens attend Safe Passage school where they are educated and given daily meals.

These kids are the poorest of the poor.  I had expected them to be sad, dirty and perhaps angry.  Instead, I found smiling, clean students who were friendly and eager to help.

Some adults are also given scholarships.

Among other skills, women learn how to make jewelry out of donated magazines.  I purchased one of their necklaces that came in a hand-made bag.  On the bus ride home, I noticed something special about my little sack.  Spanish writing contained scriptures from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.  When I got home, Jay interpreted the article for me.  One quote seemed particularly meaningful, "We don't accomplish anything by criticizing the darkness; we need to replace it with light."