Belén

Belén hasn't been coming to club at all since January, so I went all the way up the hill to where her house is. There are no roads any more, paved or unpaved; just trails. There's also often no running water or electricity. The families who live here are some of the poorest - pushed out of other houses because of their inability to pay rent, they squat on this land, building houses out of any material available to them. If they stay there long enough, the government will give them that land and they will at last own something, but it's a long time to wait.

I wandered around for a while, getting confused by the lack of straight lines and the undistinguished houses. Finally I found Belén's house and knocked. She called out without looking "I can't go!" thinking that I was going to invite her to club instead of just playing there at her house. She could play, but said her family was leaving soon, so I said we'd just play for a little while.

We played ConnectFour and Monos Locos and colored a picture and talked about praying. While we were coloring, she mentioned something about her brother Toño, two years younger than her. I didn't hear well, and just answered generally. She said "I'm sorry, but, the thing is, my brother passed away."

I was taken aback. I wished I'd been paying more attention to her first comment. She continued that he had had tuberculosis (people do get that here, along with Typhoid) and they had taken him to the hospital but that he had died in December. We sat there for a while without coloring, talking about how she felt and about her brother, and how God is always with us, even when things are hard.

After the visit, I talked to Elizabeth, the club leader, about it. Toño also was a club kid. She was shocked as well. She said she would talk to the mother, to let her know that we cared.

The thing is - Belén has been known to tell half-truths or to fabricate stories or to outright lie. She's a sweet little girl who always wants to sing me the month's Bible verse, even when she doesn't know it yet, who always wants to help pass things out in club. But she lies all the time.

I didn't think she would lie about a brother dying, but Elizabeth asked - and he's still alive. He went to the family's "rancho" (like a small, very rural town/farm) and has been there for some time.

I'm so glad that Toño is still alive, but my heart hurts for little Belén.