Community Pride & Hospitality

On our last Friday in Pana, instead of going to the worksite like usual, we took a boat ride to the town of San Martin. Dave explained to us that this town is one of the poorest around the lake and it’s a spot where all the pollution from the lake tends to gather. He described it as a forgotten town. He told us that we were going to be picking up some trash but none of us really knew what to expect. After we crossed the lake, we ‘docked’ at the edge of a forest and a cornfield. We waited on the side of a footpath for our transportation to arrive. Several minutes later a pickup truck pulled up beside us and all 14 of us piled into the back.

We drove down a road until we reached a building that they told us was a school. It seemed to be only 2 rooms plus a bathroom and there was no electricity or anything that you would expect of a school. There were a group of girls there of various ages, but all relatively young. We found out that they were from an orphanage and that they were going to help us pick up trash for the morning. We headed down the road with plastic gloves, gardening gloves, and many large bags. Some locals lead the line so that we knew where to go. Even after we split up, there were at least eight people per line. Even with everybody picking up all the trash they could see, there was still trash to be collected by the time the last person in line came through. It truly seemed as though it was futile to try to collect any of it because there was SO MUCH. It was mostly things like chip bags, plastic straws and bottles, and for some reason, socks. By the end we had at least 25 full sacks of trash, but that wasn’t the part that mattered. The best part is that as we were going through the town, some locals grabbed their own bags and joined our line. Seeing this meant a lot, because it showed that it might not be useless for us to be there. It proved that the locals care about their town too.

When we reached the end of the trail, we needed to wait for the rest of the group and then head back to the school building for lunch. We took a break and sat on the porch of a house. A few moments later, the family that lived in the house opened the window that we were sitting in front of and looked at us like we were aliens. Being the only one there at the moment who spoke any Spanish, I asked the girl in the house if it was okay that we were on her porch. She immediately responded in an overenthusiastic way that it was more than okay that we were there and then she introduced herself to me. The hospitality of the stranger meant a lot, especially because we were a large group of gross, sweaty, foreigners who just plopped down on her porch without any sort of permission.

While we were sitting there, the locals just watched us. This is something that we were sort of used to at this point, but it was still a little bit uncomfortable. After a bit, a boy came up to us smiling. He seemed to be just slightly younger than us, and It was clear that he had Downs Syndrome. Starting at one end of the porch, he shook every one of our hands and said ‘hola’ to each of us individually. After that, some other locals smiled at us and said hello.

Everybody in this town seemed to be happy and satisfied, despite living in such an impoverished town. When we brought this up to Dave, he explained to us that people of this country truly are satisfied with what they have and are happy. It is certainly a new perspective that I am very grateful to have experienced.