Carpio

Where the bus stops in Carpio.

Myself with Camilla.

Dave.

My girl Camilla.

Madeleine and the girls.

Emily cooking in the "soup kitchen."

Untitled. 

Waiting in line for food.

Today was incredible. We went to Carpio, which is a town with 35,000 residents about a half hour from downtown San Jose. As you can tell from the photos, it's a very impoverished area. Much of the garbage from the city is dumped here because the government told the residents that if they agreed to have garbage dumped there, they would build them roads. After the deal was made, the government did build a road which leads from the street to the garbage dump, only benefiting the government. Many of the residents of Carpio are Nicaraguans. People come from Nicaragua in search of a better life and more job opportunities. Many of them end up living in places like Carpio which is extremely sad to realize that this place is better than where they lived in Nicaragua. 

The kids in Carpio are amazing. As soon as we got off the bus they were running up to us grabbing our hands and asking us our names. We played simple games with the kids in the dirt roads. They all want to be hugged and carried around, especially on someone's shoulders. You could tell they were so grateful that we were there and loved the attention. Many of the kids are pretty young, and it's sad to see the eldest of a family, whether 15 or as young as 7 or 8 take over the roll of being a mother to the younger children. There is a lot of gang activity in Carpio, hence why only the very young children come to play games in the street with us.

Usually the soup kitchen.. if you could call it that.. takes place on Wednesdays but this week we did it on Thursday. They light a fire in the middle of the road using plastic bags and scraps of paper and whatever they can find in the road. Once the fire is lit, someone cooks rice and a variation of meat, vegetables or beans. Then we pack everything up and bring it down to the river where people of all ages, mostly children, line up with bowls, plates and cups to receive food to bring back to their homes for their family. Whether you gave these kids a morsel or a mountain of food they would never complain or ask for more. They are so appreciative for the little that they have and it was so refreshing to witness this.