The hike that we took this morning was behind Shernando, near a community that we have been building relationships in. From where we live you walk through a plantain field & come up here….
Those houses on the hill are the community (the hill is to the right of the bigger one that we hike up), and the bottom of the picture shows the water source for this community. We walk down, through the water, back up again, and up the hill for our sunrise hike. We stay up there for a little over an hour, then hike back down past cows & horses to head back home.
Today as we were hiking, Tiffany swore she heard her name…as we were hiking…with no one near us. We hear more yells (and realize that these voices are separate from the church songs and prayers we heard this morning) and see that two hills over – the children could see us & were yelling to us! Of course once we arrived near the path by the water they began to run towards us to say hello.
As they ran to greet us, two boys walked past with water jugs to get to the water source…they fetched their water & then started to head back up.
Can you guess how young these children are? As the sun comes up, their job is to walk down from the houses in the first picture down to this water together, to get water from a slimy water source with little water flowing. To bathe, wash dishes, cook, possibly drink depending on how poor their family is.
I’ve already gotten to a point where I am thankful when the shower turns on here, because our water doesn’t always turn on. From America, my shower seems pathetic and heard to deal with – but it’s pretty easy to get used to for me. But this? I have no idea what it is like to live in the shoes of these brothers. These are my neighbors, my friends. They are your neighbor too, even if you aren’t as physically close as I am. There is plenty of water in the world, there is plenty of money in the world – the problem is distribution. What will we do with our awareness?
