One and Only: the kids

i know it's been awhile. It's been a rough couple of weeks, with my responsibilities piling up. I'm hanging on right now, but i really only think about things that I want to do, like hang out with my friends, my family, doing the things that make me happy.

Anyway, once we started wrapping up the food distribution, Chi Loan, one of the Catalyst staffers took half the team to go first to the dump. Chi Loan arranged for us to be taken around on motorcycle drivers. They took us around where ever the bus couldn't go, since a lot of the roads in Rach Gia weren't able to handle a bus. However, apparently bikes have a weight limit in Vietnam, b/c while everyone else was going 2 riders per bike, the drivers insisted that I get my own.

I got a great view of the scenery and had to take a few shots.

What blew me away was the dump. The first thing that caught me was the smell. It was noticeable before we even got there. The incredibly sour smell was noticeable before we even arrived. As we arrived and got off the bikes, people starting coming up to us right away. Chi Loan greeted everyone and led us into the dump.

What I saw blew me away. The homes were built around the sides of the junkyard.

We had to walk on top of the garbage because when we tried to walk on the ground, we sank in. Well...to be more accurate, I sank in , since I was the first one to walk into the dirt.

We walked through dump while the kids surrounded us and followed us.

The kids were amazing though! They were incredibly happy, and very...kidlike. They horsed around, laughed, and just had a great time with us there, and that was just walking with us!

On this hill, there were also melons growing. Even with all of the garbage that was there, these melons grew through all of it. While it was interesting, at no moment did I actually consider eating it. That, unsurprisingly, was not a big deal for the kids. As we walked along, the kids were picking up the melons and getting more excited as they picked more.

I saw one kid pull one out of the ground, break it on his knee, and happily gobble it. I was actually quite happy that he didn't offer me any, because I don't know how I could've refused.

It was a lot of fun to be there with these kids. They don't really get chances to take pictures, so when we pulled our cameras out, they were genuinely excited to see their pictures! Some of them automatically pulled others in for a group pose, while others just cheesed for the camera right on the spot.

It was a very intense afternoon though. We started hearing stories about some of the things that these children go through, and some of the issues that they still have to face. One of those stories explained why the Catalyst Foundation was supporting the girls more than the boys, especially in regard to the sponsorships that we were doling to the girls only.

This community has to deal with rape issues a lot because 1) they're close to the Thai border, so traffickers actually go there a lot to "test" out the girls and 2) the boys haven't exactly learned that rape is wrong yet. There is one house in the dump, that nobody in this junkyard community hangs around because it is used by traffickers to "test" out girls. They rape the girls to see which ones scream the least, and which ones are suitable to their needs. Everyone fears the house, but they won't tear it down because they fear the traffickers as well. There was also another story where a 14-year-old boy had raped an 11-year-old girl, who subsequently became pregnant. The boy was never punished, however, which reinforced the idea that rape was okay.