Garbage Village

So, the last two Saturdays I have been going to a place called Garbage Village in Cairo with Joy to help out at a school for handicapped kids there. This village is basically its namesake and pretty much a dump with a bunch of buildings in it. The people who live in these villages collect garbage from all over Cairo and bring it back to the villages, where they sort through it all and recycle it to earn money. So, it is actually a good little business they have going on, but it doesn't provide for the best living conditions. In this particular village (there are a couple of Garbage Villages in Cairo), people were living in simple little huts and shacks until a few years ago when the wife of the richest man in Egypt decided to pay for them to have buildings constructed for them to live in. She also built the school I've been working in.

There are about 20 handicapped kids that come 3 times a week to this school where they are taught basic things like numbers, letters, etc. Others are given physical therapy. Some are there just to be loved on and shown the love of Jesus to. The conditions of these kids differ from cerebral palsy to down's syndrome to mental retardation.

This Saturday, I went with one of the teachers to go pick up two sisters that both have cerebral palsy. When we got to their house, I was overwhelmed by the stench of garbage and manure....there were thousands of flies everywhere and on everything. I was also overwhelmed by the amount of people living in this one-roomed "house" at the end of this alleyway which looked like the community compost pile. We waited while the mother finished getting the girls ready for school and I played with the other children that were flocking around us. There are 7 children altogether (not including the one on the way) and the oldest one could not have been more than 14 years old, but was carrying out the same duties as the mother. There are 6 girls and 1 baby boy and they are all soooo beautiful, with great big brown eyes and million dollar smiles that mask any hint of the fact that they are living in poverty.

So, we wheeled them back to the school and I got to help one of the girls (Donnia) with her physical therapy for the day. This included doing a bunch of exercises to strengthen her legs and help correct her balance. It was so much fun because she is such a sweet girl and always so happy. While I was helping her walk, I noticed that she had something in her hair...they were little white specks. When I took a closer look, I realized that they were lice eggs. Okay, to back up my story a little bit, I have been telling Jackie like since we got to Egypt that I had this feeling like I was going to get lice at some point and she can back me up and tell you that this is true. So, when I saw those eggs in her hair, after she had been hugging me and I had been holding her closely for most of the time.....I knew my time had come. Sure enough, while I was there, I felt something on my arm and looked and discovered a little lousy trying to burrow itself into my arm hair. I killed it, then went and showed Jackie, Joy and one of the teachers. The teacher told us that both of the girls usually had lice really bad because their mom never washes their hair so it just gets worse and worse. They have done the whole lice treatments on these girls multiple times, but it just comes back because nothing is done about it at home.

After we left the school and got back home, the first thing Jackie and I did was go to the Pharmacy and buy some lice killer hair stuff. We just wanted to be extra sure that we didn't have any other hidden critters roaming around up there. After an hour with this putrid "Licid" in my hair, I washed it out and was going through my hair (just to check) and sure enough, I found a dead little lousy on my scalp *shudder*. I just slightly freaked out, then had Jackie check the rest of my head to make sure there wasn't anything else. Praise be to Jesus who loves me, there were no eggs or any other dead (or alive) bugs. I was able to kill the little sucker before it could lay its spawn in my hair....haHA!

You know, this could have been a tramatic event that could have freaked me out and made me extra cautious about how close I get to the kids. Only with God's help was I able to put aside my own vain concerns and look past the dirty, lice-infected, smelliness and see these kids as God sees them.....as beautiful and unblemished. Sure, I don't WANT to have little bugs in my hair, but you know what? I can overlook that and truly give a child the love and attention he/she deserves and show them love that can only come from God....the EASY part is getting rid of lice.