Day #8: Los Guidos Methodist Church

Wow today was fun. We went to Los Guidos which is SW or San Jose. Los Guidos is a shante town made up of mostly undocumented people from Nicaragua and other countries. To give you an idea of the town, Los Guidos is made up of 13 sectors. Each sector is about 3 blocks squared. Within each sector there is roughly 1,000 children. Los Guidos is just under 4,000 square meters and holds over 20,000 people. So, over population is a huge issue. Also, with the decline in the world's economy, unemployment has run rampant. The people that live in Los Guidos are usually workers that do the undesirable jobs of Costa Rica (sound familiar?) like harvesting sugar cane, working long hours for little pay. Along with the huge issue of poverty, there is a large gang population in Los Guidos which brings into play: drugs, violence, prostitution, etc.

We were working with the Los Guidos Methodist Church. I originally had stated that we were working with an orphanage, but rather it was only a feeding program started and operated by the pastor at the church. When we showed up, the pastor sat with us and explained what they did there. He also explained that this morning, people from the government showed up and decided that one of the buildings that they use are topographically dangerous. Meaning, they were worried it was going to fall down the hill. Later Charlie explained to us that more than likely it was the work of a lady that has wanted to shut the church down. The issue with this house and where it was, is that in Los Guidos there is such a problem with over population that almost all of their population is comprised of squatters. So, if someone wants to make waves in the community, they just have to call into question the ownership of the land. And if those people don't have the deeds to the land they're living on, their houses get dismantled and they have to leave. As it was with this house that the church was using for its children's program, there was no deed to the land. So they took the house down. The same person that had the house dismantled, for some reason, wants to shut down the church. But the church has the deed to their land, so she can't do anything. Either way, the pastor was full of grief today, but you could tell that he was fully relying on God.


We helped feed the kids today, serving them their food. Right now Pastor Ponce has about 100 kids on his roles that he usually feeds breakfast and lunch. They were back in school last week so we only fed the younger ones. He would like to eventually be able to feed 120, but as it is his budget is already stretched to the max. Even when he feeds 100 there's barely much more than some rice and beans for the kids. BUT, that's more than what they would get at home.


After the meal the kids came into the church and did a short program. It was tons of fun.


Tomorrow we're back in The Pits. We'll probably going to be pouring cement all day...w00t...I guess.

Here's some pictures from Los Guidos:

Los Guidos Methodist Church

The Worthington crew with Pastor Edgar Ponce.

Barb and Dennis Glad serving kids lunch.

And now the kids...

More tomorrow!

-Kyle