Living in Costa Rica means mixing with poverty by just turning the corner. At times, I’m overwhelmed at what I see. I do not have to go out of my way to find people so poor, they most likely don’t have dinner, or clean water, or an indoor bathroom. To wallow even for a moment in what I do not “have” is ridiculous. The kids you are looking at marched to protest their nasty living conditions. This neighborhood happens to be right next to a dump, and the trash pickup up is rare or often never. If you’ve lived through a garbage strike, you can appreciate just a bit of what these families have to live with on a daily basis.

This really incredible woman, Gail Nystrom, founded the Costa Rica Humanitarian Foundation. Gail’s not sitting behind a desk. No. She’s out there every day. Every day. She operates a clinic for women in this barrio - neighborhood - and through that clinic helps feed, cloth, and most of all heal the women and children through education and empowerment. Loads of volunteers come down to help Gail run her clinic. Today was the protest. Volunteers and children made signs and walked together chanting: No more garbage in the neighborhood! One mother pushed FOUR children in a stroller made for one child. The little plastic wheels jostled over the pits in the street and rocks in the road. But she never stopped.

We arrived at the dump at the end of the neighborhood. (This is the landfill where OUR garbage goes: Santa Ana, Escazu, La Sabana…..). A little girl with a bouncy pony tail volunteered to talk to one of the officials at the dump. Barely audible over the engines of the vehicles approaching, the small child told this man about all the garbage in the street. He listened. He held up his photo and took a picture of everyone and read their signs. The group left.

After the kids all finished an ice cream, the volunteers lined up and each child went through the line and gave them a hug and a thank you. The volunteers left, but the children - and Gail - remained.