Some things still stand out

Well I know I just wrote a blog post not too long ago and I'm not in the habit of writing one so frequently but there are just some things that still catch my attention. Wednesday my attention was caught. Maribel found out about a nine year old girl that was living in pretty bad conditions through a pastor friend in Chenpen. The pastor's name is David and he does a kids group that anyone who wants to can come one of those kids is Claudia. Maribel went and visited Claudia last week because the pastor was wanting to know if there is anything we can do to help her or possibly bring her to the orphanage. Maribel came back crying and told me that it was the saddest thing she's ever seen, and that says a lot because both her and I have seen some pretty sad stuff here. So I agreed to go back with her and visit Claudia.

Wednesday we drove to Chenpen to go meet Claudia. We drove up and parked outside of what looked to be a pretty normal street in Chenpen. We got and I was a little surprised and was thinking this really doesn't look so sad to me, it's a pretty busy street nothing terrible. We then walked through what I thought was going to be a front door of a house but it was actually a door to an alley way. The alley was about 3 feet across and all dirt with adobe walls on each side. Along this alley were 10 foot x 10 foot rooms that people lived in. No electricity no running water. The people who lived there paid 20 soles a month for the rooms. One of these rooms is where Claudia lives. We knocked on the door frame (there was no door) and a mentally ill old lady told us to go ahead and come in, as soon as we walked in I had to walk back out because Claudia was just sitting on the bed naked. I came back in the room about 10 minutes later after she had put on the new clothes that Maribel had brought for her. The room was piled floor to ceiling with junk. In order to pay for food and the 20 sole a month rent the mentally ill mother and Claudia would scavenge for junk and sell it. After I got a hold of what I was seeing the older lady offered me a chair to sit in, however it was a preschool chair designed for toddlers and there was no way I was fitting in it so I just stood. We watched Claudia open her little doll set that we brought her and at the same time explained that the vitamins that we brought were only to be eaten one a day.

After she opened her present is when I noticed the old man lying on the floor. It was her mothers step father or something like that. He was lying there on the dirt floor on top of a blanket and he looked pretty out of it. David the pastor told me that they think he has TB and they are getting him some medicine. I wouldn't doubt that he has TB because the entire house is dust, mold, and cobwebs not to mention all the trash and the pot that they use to go to the bathroom in. We asked Claudia if she might like to come to Pacasmayo one day to come visit, she said she would because she hasn't seen the beach before. I doubt she's ever been out of Chenpen. I really am just flabbergasted as to how she has made it to nine with the caretakers that she has, the mother is in no way mentally stable and the man of the house can't even walk. It's just a sad sad story.

The entire house

you can see man sleeping in this picture

Alley way, their door on the right

alley way looking back at the street you can see our van parked out front.