Emily

At the weekend I was talking to Pastor Winston and he had been really challenged by the story of a little girl who turned up at his house last week. I asked him to write his thoughts down ... so here they are:

"A little girl came to our house one morning and asked, “uncle do you have some plastic?” When I looked I saw this brown headed, dirty looking girl with a big sack on her back with some plastic things and plastic bottles she had pick up on the street. I said I don’t have, then she said “can I help you clean your sewer drain for 20 pesos (20p)” and I said “yes”, and she join me cleaning. My wife prepared some food for us since it was merienda (snack) time and I thought I’d ask some information about her. And I listened to this little girl tell the story of her life.

Her name is Emily Gutierrez (pic above). She started by saying her foot was so sore with athletes foot that she had because every time the rain come, their floor is all wet. Their roof is an old tent. Water is all over. Then she described about their little house and that there are 8 of them living there. Her mother got married and they gave birth to 2 girls, and Emily is the eldest. Her father was killed when she’s only 4 years old, someone hit her father with a hammer that causes the immediate death. After a few months, her mother married another guy. During the 6 years of marriage, they were able to produce 3 kids, then the husband was drowned in the river a kilometer away from their house, and so she became widow for the second time.

Again after a few months, the mother got married to a widower and they had a boy who is only 7 months old at the moment. Now the husband is accused of theft and is presently in prison here in Santiago City Jail. So Emily had 5 brothers and sisters plus two orphan girls who stays with them in this tiny house - plus her mom.

I ask her “how do you survive?” She smiled and said, "sometimes we eat 3 times a day, sometimes just once. Me and my other two sister, will walk daily in the streets of this compound to look for plastic and any rubbish from people here that we can sell in the junk shop. We have an average of P30 daily and we use to buy rice for our food the next day. We don’t go to school for we have no money, I only finished Grade 1. I can’t read nor write. Our mother stays at home to look after our smaller brothers and sisters.

My tears are falling as I listen to her story, and I said can I visit your house now? And she said yes. On our way to their house I bought some potatoes, eggs, fish, and rice to bring to her family who are waiting for Emily to bring food for them. I told her, “tell your mother to mix the potato and the egg for your lunch.”

She smiled at me and said “can we fry the eggs?” and I said yes. She look at me and said “I don’t think so - we never fry eggs we only boil them.” Then I realized that they don’t buy cooking oil so they have never had a fried egg before. It’s a bit funny, but it really mattered to Emily. And when she ate a fried egg for the 1^st time, it brought a big smile in her face.

That afternoon, I asked some of our Cornerstone Pastors to join me to visit this family. So we went there and prayed for the people there, for many are sick. At the moment, we are trying to figure out how can we help this family and all the people who live in this squatter area. Please join us to pray for this community and the family of Emily. Thank you, Winston."

...seems a million miles and a different world from Disneyland ... Mark.