Dear all,
Thank you for journeying with us. We appreciate your prayers, love and encouragement. And we also thank the special couple who partially funded our trip there.
As this trip has been most heart-wrenching and overwhelming, we are still taking time to process the pain and heartbreak of the situation in Smokey Mountain. This has been my second visit since a year and a half ago, but the very real and near face of poverty has made a brutal assault on our senses, and pierced our hearts.
Bit by bit, we hope to share with you the sights and sounds of the place. When the time is right, we will share more on how you can play a part and make a difference.
Meanwhile, here’s sharing a poem I penned on our first day visiting the children of Smokey, as I took in the colours, shapes and smells of this familiar place.
Sights at Smokey, Day 1
Barbed wire fencing, twirled round in circles
Telephone wires, cast above in lines
Canvas sheets, sprawled wide in squares
Skies above, silent.
Little child, by roadside sleeping
Mother, bent over, potatoes peeling
Dusty children, amok, fates are sealing
Skies above, silent.
Broken crates, forgotten, brown
Old ruins, abandoned, once renown
Trampled trash, despised, surround
Skies above, silent.
Parched, in fragments, soil under feet
Unyielding rays from sun down beat
Thirsty mouths, searching for a teat
Skies above, silent.
Hearts heavy, but thoughts, light are twirling
Dreams of a future, sweeter, swirling
Quiet prayers, once hidden, now spoken
Skies above, opened.
