Abusive labor.....144 rings for $3.75

I was brought back down into the reality that I live in everyday when I went to visit a lady that I have known for the past couple of years. I wrote about her in one of my blogs at Christmas. Her name is Marta. Anyway, come to find out she was doing really badly again in health. She has had some kind of horrible pain in her abdominal area for the past 5 years and along with it comes fever. Nicchola and I decided to take her to the clinic right then and there. I had taken her last year, but it seems every summer the pain comes back really strong. While we were talking to her in her living room, I saw all these beads on the table and rings like the picture below.

After asking, she explained to me that she makes 144 rings having to string together each pedal since they are all separate and string on each individual bead which takes about 30 to 40 hours to make. For 144 rings she earns 10 soles which is about $3.75. She said she has to do that to make the ends meet and they still don’t meet. She says she hand washes her neighbor’s clothes for a little extra money because her husband does not have a secure job. From other conversations, she has explained to me that her husband is a drunk that is lazy. She says that he only brings home 10 soles a day for food and that is for a family of 5. $3.75 a day for food for 5 people, that is almost impossible to live on and not be hungry all the time. Later she explained me that she feeds the kids at 10 am and at 1 pm and that is all they have to eat all day because there is nothing else. On top of that they have to pay the light bill, enroll their kids in school etc. That broke my heart. I was brought back down to the extreme poverty that these people live in. It made me so mad to see the injustice of the situation. She gives these rings to a lady in Lima who at least makes 144 if not 288 soles from those rings and she only pays Marta 10 soles. Anyway, we took her to the clinic, and they said she had a urinary tract infection, but come to find out later it is not that either. Please pray for her because this week she has been taking various tests to see what the real problem is. Then we went out to eat “pollo a la broaster” a very famous way of cooking chicken here in Peru. The restaurant had an indoor playground. The kids had a ball. There kid’s meal came with free t-shirts, a balloon, a king crown, and ice cream. Needless to say they had a great time. Marta broke down in tears at dinner; she was saying how she didn’t know how they were going to eat dinner that night. She had been asking God to provide for her, and God had sent me to her house. She said not only did we get to eat; we got to eat chicken which is a very huge luxury. Her kids have always wanted to play on like mechanical toys like at a carnival but there has never been the money.  This indoor playground was the most carnival type thing or fun adventure they have ever gotten to do in their childhood. This afternoon/ night blessed me much more than they were blessed. God is so good. Please pray for wisdom, right now I am looking into ways to set up a way to export homemade jewelry to the states or to take to Mira Flores a very touristic town in Lima for people like Marta to make a real living. Please pray that she would come to know Christ. Pray for her and thousands of other families like her here in Peru that God would provide financially, emotionally, but most of all spiritually. If you ever would like to help Marta’s family or someone like her, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Playground at the restaurant

Dieron

Hans who was super excited about his food!

Marta and I

Nicchola and the 2 boys!