and waiting.....

We have had some emotional, exciting experiences in the last few days. Today our friends on Third Day (we met them in La Paz and they have been down south on the coast this last month) told us about a group that were bringing lunches out to the people who lived in the dump around Mazatlan. We were very excited to have the chance to come along and help.

We met at a church at nine this morning and helped assemble 300 lunches. They consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, a bottle of water, an orange, and for the children some animal crackers, too. Then we hopped on a bus and took an hour ride out to the garbage dump. The further we went, the poorer the dwellings, until finally we were at the dump. You can imagine how huge the dump is for Mazatlan. There were probably about a hundred people we could see, rummaging through the garbage. Only adults are allowed in the dump now, since too many children have been killed by the trucks. The children stay down in their homes at the foot of the dump with a few mothers watching them. It is sad to say that there were not enough lunches for the adults working at the dump.

Then we boarded the bus and went to the children. We stopped at three different places to hand out lunches to the kids. They were so sweet, so excited. The fun of the bus coming and all these people there handing out lunches. It's a fun time for them. But it is even sadder to say that there were not enough lunches for all the kids who came running to the bus. There were many times during the day when I found myself fighting back tears. We are all so happy that we could be there, and just wish that we had found out about this service weeks ago.

Earlier in this week, when we anchored out to watch the fireworks, we had another sad, but exciting experience. In the little cove where we were anchored, a Risso's Dolphin swam right up to the shore. He had scratches down him face and was bleeding from cuts on his dorsal fin and tail fin. He was trying to beach himself, but someone who was there helped him swim back out. Then in the morning when we came back to the shore, we found him there, dead, in the shallows. It was so amazing to see such a beautiful creature up close. And so sad to see that he had not made it. The story is that he had gotten caught in a fisherman's net and had gotten his injuries then.

Laura