Blog 3

Another day and Rick is visiting orphans all day. Here is what he has to say:

"On our last stop of the day I met a young girl who lost both parents and now lives with her “bibi” (grandmother). The grandmother is not that old, I would guess in her late 60’s and she is taking care of 5 or 6 kids from 2 of her children. Like any place there are a number of communities with differing levels of income, this area is likely near the bottom. On Tuesday when we were in this area, I saw a number of piles of stone stacked all over the place. It turns out this is used for construction. It is granite and it is broken in small gravel sized pieces using a hammer. The big pieces are broken off a boulder that was unburied from a side hill near the house. Other family members carry the big rocks to one spot and broken into smaller pieces, these smaller ones are then carried to another spot where their sister was sitting on the ground. She had the head of a sledge hammer with a stick for a handle that stuck out too far beyond the head. She was smashing the rocks with the hammer on another rock then sorting out the pieces according to size. She was using rags that were rolled together and tied with rope into a donut shape to stop the rocks from flying all around. Once she had a pile built she would take it near the street to “her” pile, then in a few days a truck will come along and shovel the rocks into a truck. This is their primary source of income!! Truly a family business."