My dear fellow pilgrims,

In July, I spent 11 days in Nicaragua on two back to back pilgrimages. The first was with a group of our speakers and the second was with a group from St. James Cathedral in Orlando, led by Fr. John McCormick and Dr. Lynne Nasrallah.

I visited La Chureca with both groups. La Chureca is the garbage dump in Managua. Although it was my fourth visit there, my eyes still had a hard time accepting it as reality. There is so much there that is offensive to the senses. There is the rancid smell of putrefaction that assaults you as soon as you get off the bus. Then it’s all downhill from there. You have to speak with your teeth clenched so as not to allow entry to any of the thousands of flies that are permanent residents. We were fortunate that, on both visits, the wind was blowing in the “right” direction. This meant that we didn’t have to cover our faces like terrorists in order to avoid inhaling the toxic smoke that emanated from the multiple piles of burning garbage a few yards from where we stood. There were hundreds of vultures that made the place look like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. Every now and then, a group of them would fly around in some sort of macabre dance that truly chilled the spine. There were cows, pigs and goats also, adding their share of filth to an already repugnant place.

But the worst part is that there were still dozens of people there, maybe hundreds, trying to eek out a wretched existence from the refuse of the world. These poor people (and I use “poor” in its full complexity of meanings), some of whom have been there for as long as forty years, spend at least 12 hours a day trying to retrieve recyclable materials from the huge mountains of garbage that the trucks occasionally dump. Whenever a truck unloads, the people become human scavengers, competitively trying to get the most advantageous position to extract the most value from this “precious” cargo. At the end of the day, they sell their bounty to the trucks that come to purchase it for US $1-$3… after spending 12 hours in hell.

The day before we got there, a young girl (14 y.o.) had died at the dump from toxic poisoning. There were no relatives there to claim her… she would be buried in another two days in an unmarked grave. A few weeks before that, a young woman took her infant son with her to work there. She had no one with whom to leave him and she carefully placed him in a box and covered him with a sheet of newspaper to protect him from the sun, the flies and the smoke. Her son was crushed to death by an incoming truck. Death is a monthly reality at La Chureca; the vultures are a constant symbolic reminder of this.

There are two questions that I have been asked when I bring people here: “Why do they come here to work?” and “Why does God allow this to exist?” The answer to the first is easy. When you are poor and illiterate in Managua your options are narrowed to construction work, (which is scarce, sporadic and often unsuitable for women) prostitution, stealing or the dump. Which would you choose? The second is also easy — it has nothing to do with God. The reason that such a place exists as a job site has little to do with God’s creation (which offers abundance) or design. It exists as a work place because of injustice, poor government, the unequal distribution of wealth, corruption and the unequal opportunities of education and advancement that exist in our world. Not God’s doing at all! What God mandates us to do is to make a difference in a place like that — and we do!

Yes, there is good news and there is hope! When I first went there years ago, there were hundreds of children working there alongside their parents. Now, thanks to your efforts and the generosity of one of our donors, we have built The John Cordisco School and Feeding Center. Here, Msgr. Peña and his able assistant and parishioner, Giaconda, and a devoted staff, offer education, nutrition and day care to over 300 children that were saved from that horrible place. Now, there are only a couple dozen of children at the dump and we hope that soon there will be none. If the next generation of the poor of that area have an education, they will have many more options and opportunities at their disposal and they will not be condemned to the wretchedness of that hell on earth called La Chureca.

We visited a number of schools that we support and it was beautiful to see these well fed, well dressed, well loved kids receiving the one thing that would allow them to realize their dreams for the future — an education. We visited a home for mentally challenged kids and young adults in Ciudad Sandino called “El Güis” (a Nicaraguan bird whose appearance symbolizes hope). I loved how they referred to their wards as “people of different capabilities.” The young people there proudly showed us their notebooks, where every two pages had exactly the same thing. On one side their name was written out about 25 times and the other side was filled with a repetition of the numbers from 1-5. Another day, when speaking to a very intelligent, articulate young man and his wife, I sadly realized that, where literacy was concerned, they were at the same level as those young people at El Güis. Poverty creates its own handicaps.

In Granada, we visited a beautiful home for the aged, not where they go to die with dignity, but rather, where they go to live with dignity until they die. Both groups of pilgrims fell in love with the beautiful “mature” residents of this home (some near 100). One of our speakers, momentarily forgetting his vows, actually proposed to one of them!

We visited many of our Angels of Hope orphanages. What a delight these visits were. It wasn’t only hope, it was Happiness (with a capital “H”). These children, whose lives began with such pain (three of them were actually there from La Chureca!), were now living in beautiful environments. They now live in clean, safe places where education, love and discipline were obvious in the actions of the children.

The sisters, who usually are in charge of these homes, are doing God’s work in such a marvelous way. The Offertory at a Mass in one of these homes was so wonderfully narrated and acted out that we were all moved to tears. I couldn’t help thinking of the words of a Spanish poet at his death bed, at 96 years of age, when he exclaimed, “I see beauty everywhere.”

Finally, in Leon we visited our housing projects. Did you know that we have housed approximately 5% of the population of that city (one of the three largest of Nicaragua). FFP has built over 1,200 homes there! Yes, thanks to the generousity of our donors, WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

God bless you.
Angel