The last couple of days we have been in San Marcos, a small town about an hour or so from Managua. It is the home of a group called Los Quinchos - an organization that takes in street kids from Managua and the city's dump. The project has 3 phases: The "filter" where kids come in for 6 months off the street, they have to give up sniffing glue. If they go on, they enter phase 2 which is known as "La Finca." Here they stay up to age 12. It is a big farm here in rural San Marcos where the kids - all boys - live while they start to attend regular local public school. Some also continuously receive therapy like through art, yoga, going the beach. They have caseworker-types who range from Nica psychologists to ex-Quinchos who have gone through the program successfully. The 3rd phase is for 13-18 year olds and they go to technical school, learn about re-integrating into society as fathers, workers, citizens.

We visited the Finca yesterday, played with the kids, learned about the project. There is also a girl's program, but of much smaller scale. The kids are picked up by people from Los Quinchos who go look for them. According to Carlos, a man who has been with the project since 1995, about 85% of the kids come in with glue sniffing addiction, 90% of the girls have been sexually assaulted, 40% of the kids come from dysfunctional families and about 20% from no families at all. I asked a lot of questions because I cannot fathom the millions of abandonded and forgotten children that roam cities all over the world. This organization is not very big, not very rich, but has rescued about 2,000 children since 1991.

Today we visited "La Chureca" - or the Managua city dump, which is the largest in Central America. I've visited the dump in Guatemala City a few times. This dump is not only bigger, but much more "lawless." There are no rules about people entering, including us, any age, anyone can enter and work. Work means digging through the garbage for recyclables to sell, goods to re-sell. People live right around the dump. The smell made me choke. The kids were dirty, rough, with few clothes. The very small and humble Los Quinchos center at the dump gives kids a spot to play, color, eat. Today we helped serve a lunch of rice and a very small bit of meat. The kids ate. Then entered a woman with 2 black eyes. She ate wildly, scrapping the food from the plates left by the kids. It was so shocking.

The guy we were with wanted to walk more around the dump but I objected. The air was too thick with a painful smoke and smell. I know there is danger from garbage that spontaneously explodes, fires that just start - many parts were burning while we were there, dump trucks and other machinery to be weary of. We were asked to take off our watches, leave our packs behind due to the possiblity of theft. The visit was an eye full, a morning full, without the dangers that go with roaming around a horrific city dump - at least 800 meters wide.

We are spending a couple of days more here. My students are going to repair a bad roof at the Finca. The Italian lady who started the project in 1991 approached me and my co-instructors this evening. She said, Thanks for actually doing something... Most people come here just to Oooh and Aaah about the problems, criticize and state the obvious... Thanks for actually doing something.

It has been emotional here, privately emotional I guess. As a student of social work, I have learned about my limits and what takes the most out of me. Sick, addicted, abused, extremely poor kids are pretty much the hardest thing for me to take in. Here, they are amazing survivors and success stories - it is great to see them thrive in a positive place. But it really brings on the most cynical thoughts, of the ugliest part of our modern world, the children who live in the streets, forced to endure terrible experiences. I go between heartbreak then take a deep breath... There is one guy here... One of the first 7 kids to enter the project several years ago. Now, Manuel has a college degree in engineering, earned in Cuba, and is the VP of the Los Quichos organization. He will always wear extremely thick glasses to help his vision, damaged so badly by sniffing glue as a kid in streets of Managua.