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Here's a view of the colonia from the hill where we built our family's home. Perhaps this can give you some idea of the depth of poverty in this area. Many of the houses are completed with scrap wood or cardboard. They don't have anything like indoor plumbing. Although they do have electricity, the wiring is extremely dangerous. Occasionally we saw brick or cinderblock walls, but most of them only covered part of a home, or they were homes that had been left incomplete. Most of the children we saw and played with were easy to recognize because they wore the same clothes everyday. Despite their living conditions, everyone smiled to us and was willing to share.
One of the greatest moments occurred when I sat, working, on the roof, looking out over all of this, then turned and looked up at the mountain behind me. Hope, a college student from our team, had taken a group of kids up the mountain and they were standing on top of a rock that had "Christo es Vida" spraypainted on it. They were standing up there singing at the top of their lungs, "Rey de Reys y Senor de Senores, Gloria Hallelujah" ("King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Glory Hallelujah"). I couldn't help thinking, 'go tell it on the mountain' and began singing back up to them and waving my arms. It was a beautiful moment to see them so invigorated. |
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