PST: TUESDAY – EXTREME

Today, all of the groups went to ride the subway and to the main area of poverty. The train ride there was extremely fun. It was so interesting how no one. Absolutely NO ONE could talk. Police were walking around to detect people who were talking, and unfortunately, a few of our groups got into trouble. However, nothing more severe occurred than just shushing them up. As we arrived at the destination, the guide escorted us to the main area of poverty. As I was crossing the bridge, the number of trash increased, and the number of times I jumped around to avoid stepping on the trash also increased. I finally raised my neck after extreme focus on playing the “try not to step on trash challenge,” and of course, in my head, I thought, ‘Oh. MY. GOSH.’ The smell of a mixture of trash and urine tingled my nose. The guide told us that this is a nice time to wear our masks. Although I am talented at hiding my facial expressions, I was still grateful for the mask. I didn’t want to hurt or offend anyone. As we walked around the area, all the people were staring at us, smiling. All of them had innocence and joy on their faces, and at first, I couldn’t process this. We finally arrived at the main destination. During the whole journey, Christian music was turned on, notifying me that it was time for food.  We brought the food we made, and we started distributing it. The heat, smell, and crowdedness were extremely difficult to tolerate, but, again, I did not want anyone to feel offended, so all I did was smile. After all of this, we went to the place called the “trash island.” And yes, it was named after that for a reason. As I went up to the top of the mountain, all I did was step on trash. I couldn’t believe that this was normalized in this village. I wanted to act but didn’t know how to. Here, we did a similar activity but with extra fun. Due to the fact that it was little children who came to get the food, each child had at least two members on our trip to help navigate their home. For some reason, this was fun as I was able to see the little kids escort us to their homes. After all of this activity, we came back to our groups and reflected extra deeply today. We all had at least 5 minutes each to talk. Everyone had a lot to say. One memorable comment I remember is immediately after the reflection, one of my close members came up to me and told me my reflection touched her heart. I had a lot to think about today.