Place Taken: Altagracia, Ometepe, Nicaragua
Date Taken: Oct 15, 2008
While visiting the Si a la Vida kids to deliver the goods we brought from the US for them, we got the “grand tour” of their facility to see how they lived. They were amazing kids with such spirit, creativity and charm. Compared to their previous lives of glue sniffing and homelessness, they must’ve thought their shared rooms and single shared sink were fantastic, but two days out of the US, it was a bit shocking to us. Their row of toothbrushes lined up on the courtyard wall next to their shared sink was emblematic of that for us and made for a really colorful picture.
It is a nice picture, but it is sad that their toothbrushes lined up on the courtyard wall.
I think you have to look at it in context. Before, these kids were living on the street, addicted to sniffing glue, without a thing to their name. They now have a home, schooling, clothes, people who care about them, a future, and the basic things we take for granted but that they may have never had…like a toothbrush.