Children of the Favelas

It all started when I saw the gleam in her eye and the want to have attention in her face that I nearly swept her up and took her home with me…

Gustavo, a second-year student in MCUMI (www.mcumi.org) gave my mother, three of my siblings, and I the privilege of going with him to visit his family in the favelas, slums. I was so excited about making the trip because I have known Gustavo since I was six years old and he is like an older brother to me to this very day.
Nearly taking two hours, we first took a train, caught a public bus, and then walked up the mountainous roads to where he lived. I thought I’d get a heat stroke with the amount of energy I had to use to climb the steep hills with the hot sun blasting its hardest on my back.

It wasn’t until we finally got to his house did I believe that the trek all the way up there was worth it. While Gustavo and my two brothers, Sean and Christopher, went to go to a neighbor’s house I stayed and helped translate for my mom. As Bekah shot pictures of Gustavo’s 5 little sisters that were present, my mother, Gustavo’s mother, and I sat on a “couch” where all you could practically feel was wood. The house only had two, small rooms clearly not large enough for the amount of occupants living in the house.

Translating back and forth between my mother and Gustavo’s mother was tiring but I somehow found the energy to play with his little sisters who clung to me. Just playing American football with the girls and letting them hold my hands brought smiles to their faces as if they were given the world. One of sisters, Estella, was a rambunctious little girl with lots of energy who my heart nearly flipped over for. Even though she tried to run me over with her little tricycle and jump all over me the sparkle in her face at having a dose of attention from an outsider overwhelmed me.

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for children…okay a BIG spot in my heart for them. They have a sense of love for me too. They pee on me, play with my hair, and somehow I end up carrying them EVERYWHERE; and I don’t make a big deal about being peed on or them messing up my hair, or having sore arms the next day because for one day or however long I’m with them I get to put myself aside. I get to put away all my dreams, wants, needs and think about their dreams, wants and needs. And in the end I am repaid more than seventy times for what I did just by the expression on their face; their smile that reaches up all the way to their ears, their eyes that shimmer with joy, and their sense of belonging.

Millions of children die each year because of their condition in poverty for all various reasons. Some die because their family has no means to pay for treatment of AIDS, some die of hunger, some die because of murder, but mostly I believe that the biggest reason why they die and suffer so much is because of the lack of love. We all say we love the little children, but actions speak louder than words. I’m sure that if we all participated in helping young children like Gustavo’s sister, Estella, she would live a longer, fuller life. Children all across the globe are born and die sometimes feeling unloved, and it’s a feeling that we can suppress and wipe away forever.