Every week on our way to church, we pass by what we refer to as the "car wash street". Alongside the edge of a canal, there are a strip of makeshift homes and stores that are all in the car wash business. There is a factory across the canal that employs some of the men, but many of the families try to make enough to eat through their car wash business.
Behind the car wash store fronts, there is a maze of one-room cement homes. Trash is literally everywhere, as the government doesn't provide trash services to them. I have yet to see a bathroom, but I can't imagine that it actually has true plumbing. In fact, I haven't seen running water in any of the "homes" that I have been in. They are comprised of a bed, a small dresser, and a table for the most part. Some of the roofs are sheets of tin held down with bricks around the edges.
So as I mentioned, we drive by this place every week, and it has been growing in our hearts for a while now that we would love to be able to do something to help the families and children we see as we go by. So last Saturday we made our first trip to visit. We stopped to get our car washed, and as we did, Elijah and Miriam ran back to the area where people live and started making friends. Especially Elijah. We call him our goodwill ambassador, because he loves everyone and everyone loves him. We spent maybe 45 minutes there, just talking with some people and letting our kids make some new friends. One little boy in particular, his name is Niuniu, became good buds with Elijah. They followed each other around everywhere.
At the end of our time, some of the families asked if we would help teach some English to their kids, so we made arrangements to come back yesterday. We showed up with some simple English teaching props and a pan of chocolate chip cookie bars. Much to our surprise, not one of the probably 15 kids would even touch the bars, much less eat them. Lesson learned: next time bring fruit. :) It was pretty chaotic and I'm not sure many of the kids learned anything, but we enjoyed continuing to build relationships. Miriam finally got an "in" with some of the other little girls and was running up and down the alleys yelling happily with them. Little Niuniu was our most diligent student and liked telling Miriam and Elijah the Chinese names for things.
Our plan is to go back again next week. We have no idea where things are going to go from here. Maybe nowhere. Or maybe there will be a door opened for us that we don't see yet. All we know is that we have a burden to serve and love this little community, and are praying that God would open up a way for that to happen if that's His plan. I'll let you know.
The kids with Niuniu (not the most flattering look for either of mine, but Niuniu is a doll :))
Some views of the area
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