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Location: La Carpio & Shaman
Today we received a tour of La Carpio, a poor village of over 30,000 people and also met Juan Sanchez, a local indigenous man. Our first view of La Carpio was a massive garbage dump which shocked us as the impoverished town of La Carpio was brought into view right past it. What impacted us was not the smelly and large dump but rather how it symbolized the poverty in the region because the people there live next to this and smell it their whole lives. They will never have a say in where the dump goes and when the dump stops being filled which is why it is where it is.
Once we got to Gail’s kindergarten, we were inspired by all of the children who showed us in their play that when they get older, they hope to make a lot of money to give back to communities of poor people, like La Carpio. This motivated us to want to give back even more. In the afternoon, we met Juan Sanchez who was so kind and generous to open up his culture and beliefs to us and even perform a blessing ceremony for us which included patting us down with leaves! The sights and activities we took part in today have made us super excited about beginning our service work tomorrow.