It's been a very varied few days. I went to an interesting presentation tuesday evening about the establishement of Women's Co ops to provide financial and emotional support to groups of women in remote rural villages. Hand crafts are an important means of capturing and preserving their hertiage and at least it provides women with an alternative source of employment rather than slaving on the land. Three women from one of the co ops came to speak which was very brave of them. I met with a belgian girl who gave me information about other non profit projects, a subject i seem instinctively drawn towards. Myself and Henrietta,a new dutch girl at home organised to go visit the work of an organisation called Camino Seguro today who help children living in the slums around Guatemala's City main dump. As you can see from the pictures it is fairly vast and frightening. It provides employment for 2,000 people daily. I found it hard at times to digest the attitude of our guide. The goverment is corrupt so there is no point even talking about what they should be dong as they don't take responsibility for the problem. The organisation through the generous donations from the west have built two centres nearby to the dump,one as a day care centre for children from 0-5, providing 60 places for the very lucky selected kids every day to come and play in english and spanish. The second home for school going kids to come for abit of reinforcement. The ultimate aim seems to be to provide the children with a happy place to be if not just for the moment as the problems they face in their daily lives are so vast that who knows if they will survive to see another day. I had a slight problem accepting the lack of emphasis on education as a means to making a real significant long term difference. Our guide was keen to point out that the children see western volunteers as their angels. It is wonderful for anyone to give their time but i find it interesting that there seemed to be very much a culture of dependency and there didn't seem to be a strategy in place to work towards self suffiency. However it is wonderful to see children been given a chance to experience a different side of life in a happy secure environement Hopefully they will take something with them that will encourage them to take a different path in life.