Treasure in a Plastic Bottle

  Today on the day of team three’s garbage dump visit we all woke up bright and early, got a bite to eat and then started out our day with an emotional talk with Christal. She talked about the price of human life and us some stories about her Hero Holiday experiences in Thailand. We all began to realize, as Canadians, how lucky we are to have our freedom and how much we take it for granted. After a few tears were shed, we climbed aboard our bus and and made our way to the garbage dump. On our way, our translator taught us some easy phrases in Creole so that we would be able to communicate with the people at the dump.When we arrived, we began to hand out water and set up a water cooler for the workers to get clean water.   Immediately, a little girl names Fitzah came over and grabbed my hand leading me right into the middle of the garbage pile. She began to show me what exactly it was that I was supposed to do, pointing at the plastic bottles, bags and some glass items that we were to put into a large garbage bag. We began to look over of garbage pile not knowing what we would find. It was weird looking through to find what may be recycling to us is plastic treasure for little Fitzah. As we worked together, I found that she could speak some French, so with the little French that I know, I was able to communicate with her. She told me that she was 6 years old and has always been working at the dump along side both her mother and father, making less than a dollar a day. She was very interested in how we live, and I was able to teach her how to count to 10 in English, which she was very proud of. Being at the dump was a very emotional and eye opening experience, but I was very glad that I was able to help Fitzah and her family make a little extra money for the day. As we were leaving everyone on team 3 found someone to give their work gloves to, this was such a big gift to the people and is one very easy way to prevent many diseases. We all said our goodbyes to our new friends and dump co-workers and headed back to our temporary home at the resort. I believe that we all finished our day with a much better understanding of what poverty is and a very eye opening day.Genelle – Summer Intern