The last three days in Monter(r)ico, Guatemala

We spent the last three days in Monterrico, a small "aldea" (village) on the southern pacific coast of Guatemala. There was no internet connection there, except for a small road side internet cafe, with one computer available, so forgive our delay in posting. David Alvarez's church, "Centro Cristiano Cultural de Guatemala" has a facility there which includes a simple medical clinic and a community center on three floors, where retreats and schooling is held for the local children. This week a vacation bible camp was held for poor children from Monterrico, Guatemala City and Rio Dulce (another poor area 8 hours away...). More than 90 children ages 11 through 15 arrived on ONE school bus.
We joined a church group from Tennessee and helped with food serving and games. The time spent here was enriching and educational. We also were blessed to meet one of our two sponsored children, Alejandra.
It is hard to describe what abject poverty looks and feels like. I will try to summarize that in a future post, but for now, I will let you get an idea by looking at the pictures below. Still, seeing generic pictures of poverty of people far away is much easier to accept and forget about than witnessing it first hand and "walking through it". How do we reconcile our upper middle class American existence with lack of basic nutrition, sleeping on a dirt floor and walking in a village where trash is left and burned everywhere? It will take time to process all of that.