Visit to El Barranco (The Ravine)

Several of us headed out this morning to do 2 home visits of 2 of our sponsored kids from Verbena school, attached to our office here in Guatemala City. The ravines of Guatemala are home to many squatters who have nowhere else to live. Thousands of Guatemalans live this way in absolute squalor.


The children were so excited to show us their homes and so proud of where they lived. The father in the second home thanked us profusely and said that he was "blessed by God with so much... He has given us this home and so many things to live with...it might not be much, but it´s everything to us"... I was very humbled by this and would have burst into tears had it not been for fear of offending him.

He told us all about life there...including the fact that during rainy season, all the run-off and water from the neighborhoods above end up in his livingroom and they have to live with mud and constant messes to clean up. He was so proud of the work he had done digging out around his house so that the mud and rocks would not land directly on his roof.
Below are some photos of our morning there. If you wish to view them larger, simply click on the slideshow.