Day 6, Back to the Village
The leader of the Village offered to let us go to some of the houses and visit the people in their own homes. As we went, they each shared with us things they needed. These were not new dresses, or food, or furnishings. Some had homes that were falling over. The cement had crumbles or the wood rotted so their homes were collapsing. Thatched roofs were completely worn out so wouldn't protect them from the rain. We asked one little lady who didn't know how old she was but was probably about 75-85 what she needed. She had been there since 1950 and said "I don't need anything, God will give it to me if He wants". She sat on a hand made stool that didn't sit flat. her legs were so fragile, she had to use a cane to walk. I seriously could hardly walk in my tennis shoes without slipping, I have no idea how she was able to walk with her crippled legs and worn little sandals.
On the way down a 94 year old woman with worn out plastic sandals, took my and Aubrey's hand to help us down the mountain. She wanted to make sure we didn't get hurt. On the way down she showed us her home. A tiny little shack, open fire to cook and nothing else. She said she goes down the mountain every day to beg for food and if she gets anything then she can eat that day-if not, then she starves. I had a hard time wrapping my head around all this. Even as I go over this blog it doesn't even begin to describe the poverty we saw. I thought I had prepared myself but could never had expected what we were experiencing. We were the only people that had come there to help them. In actuality, they had found us. The matriarchal leader and come down the mountain and heard about Serventures and their director, Wendi. She was helping another orphanage and Yolinne had gone to ask for her help. Wendi had taken it upon herself to take her volunteers and her family and do whatever she could to help them. As I spent time up on that mountain, I couldn't help but think how few people even knew these people existed and how lucky I was to have met them and been allowed to share their lives for just a moment.
On the way home we stopped at a beach and purchase lobster dinners for $20. They would take the lobster, cut it in half, grill it and serve. It melted in my mouth even without the butter. Aubrey loved it until she saw the guts were still intact. They hadn't taken time to clean them, just cut and grill. But that didn't ruin everything. She enjoyed swimming in the very warm water of the beautiful Caribbean ocean.
On the way down a 94 year old woman with worn out plastic sandals, took my and Aubrey's hand to help us down the mountain. She wanted to make sure we didn't get hurt. On the way down she showed us her home. A tiny little shack, open fire to cook and nothing else. She said she goes down the mountain every day to beg for food and if she gets anything then she can eat that day-if not, then she starves. I had a hard time wrapping my head around all this. Even as I go over this blog it doesn't even begin to describe the poverty we saw. I thought I had prepared myself but could never had expected what we were experiencing. We were the only people that had come there to help them. In actuality, they had found us. The matriarchal leader and come down the mountain and heard about Serventures and their director, Wendi. She was helping another orphanage and Yolinne had gone to ask for her help. Wendi had taken it upon herself to take her volunteers and her family and do whatever she could to help them. As I spent time up on that mountain, I couldn't help but think how few people even knew these people existed and how lucky I was to have met them and been allowed to share their lives for just a moment.
On the way home we stopped at a beach and purchase lobster dinners for $20. They would take the lobster, cut it in half, grill it and serve. It melted in my mouth even without the butter. Aubrey loved it until she saw the guts were still intact. They hadn't taken time to clean them, just cut and grill. But that didn't ruin everything. She enjoyed swimming in the very warm water of the beautiful Caribbean ocean.
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