WE FOUND IT

I have good news from our team in K-town! After over a month of researching, networking, exploring and praying, we’ve finally discerned the part of the city where we’ll put down roots. We still have more groundwork and discernment ahead of us regarding specific communities and accommodations, but it’s exhilarating to have found an area in which to focus our efforts.

One of many crowded streets in K-town

As I reflect on this past month of learning, I’m thankful for the experiences we’ve had as a team. We’ve literally explored slums and organizations in the north, south, east and west, and many pockets in between. Many questions have been asked, helpful connections have been made and we’ve received much wisdom and encouragement.

Not only do we feel good about our decided location, but we are now connected with many more others who are working with the poor and who have diverse knowledge, skills and resources to share. We’ve been inspired by seeing their work and challenged by good conversations. We’ve also seen a huge variety of slums in the city and feel like we’ve gotten to know the city in a deeper way.

In a city of 15 million with crowded streets and hot-humid weather, it hasn’t been a walk in the park, but we’ve managed to embrace the experience and learn as much as possible along the way.

The area we’ve chosen is on the fringe of the city. There are lots of people doing varying forms of work in the city “proper”, but we’ve noticed the neglect of the periphery just outside its borders. Our area is marked by train tracks, which often provide long narrow strips of slum on undesirable land.

We’ve seen some pretty interesting areas during this period of searching. In one other fringe area I visited, scavengers (garbage pickers/ recyclers) made up almost the entire slum right next to two dumps. One dump (bigger than a football field and with a road through it), was overgrown and now is just a huge dirty hill with pigs sniffing around.

Next to this old dump is the new dump, where the scavengers (parents and children together) surround the dump trucks and compete with the pigs (which may have outnumbered the people) for the fresh garbage. Never before have I walked on such a putrid and toxic surface where small trickles of black, oozing liquid lined my path like snakes crawling to their graves. Children in sandals scavenged with bare hands for the waste that would buy them enough rice for another day of work.

The scavengers have a system where each family goes to a designated truck at a scheduled time of the day so as to create some fairness and order. All the garbage has already been searched to some degree by others at smaller dump sites. So really, these last sifters of garbage are the final stage of a system that makes an ultra efficient recycling machine. I’ve wondered before, what their expressions would be if they saw the recycling opportunities in the US, and realized both the gems that people throw out and the lack of competition.

Another community on the fringe of the city was tucked behind an industrial area. When we asked if they worked at the factories, they told us that factory jobs were beyond them. They were day laborers and rickshaw peddlers. Some water was available in their community, but it didn’t seem very easy to access or very plentiful. There were no toilets, so everyone somehow used the ditch behind the strip of houses. The surrounding area was extremely industrial, gloomy and that day happened to be rainy and muddy. I didn’t quite know what to think or what to feel, to be honest.  One of those depressing days when reality slaps me in the face and I just stand there with the realization that I have a ton to experience and learn. 

But there is hope.

It’s easy, as an outsider, for me to only see the negatives of slums and to then project hopelessness onto those who live there. But slums are more than just slums. They are much more than poor people in simple structures without any resources.

There is certainly beauty, community and hope in all of this. Difficult times create solidarity among people – a sense of deep bond of experience, understanding and belonging. Imagine the contrast of loneliness of wealthy individuals who build walls around their property that reinforce their isolation from even their neighbors. Slums may lack some things, but there is much they have more of than we’d first think, including strong community, openness and hope.

I want to discover the hope that exists in the slums. And I also want to share the hope that I have. Maybe we will all realize that our hope is complimented and made more complete by inviting a more whole perspective. Maybe the hope that I share will fill in some cracks of their ideas of hope. And likewise, maybe their contentment and hope will help me be more thankful for what I have or refine my idea of what hope means. And just maybe, as we learn and grow together, we’ll learn to hope together in a way that brings bits of that future hope into present reality – participating together in God’s kingdom-building activity.

I’m talking about the kind of hope that you don’t just hear about, but the kind that you can taste, touch, smell, feel, know and share with others. A hope that is not merely of the future, but demonstrated tangibly in the here and now. A hope that doesn’t require persuasive argument, but rather an authentic example and demonstration of it, through God’s Holy Spirit.