Sunflowers

Mateus stood on top of the biggest pile of trash, with a look that said he was king of the hill. Eduardo sat a bit to the side, dangling one foot over, and swinging it back and forth. The wind was blowing in our favor, the opposite direction of our faces, so the smoke and putrid air was away from us. Henrique, 4 years old, stood in the midst of a circle of men who called us over to take him home. Home was down the muddy road, about a quarter mile from the stacks of trash, little more than a pile of trash itself.

Henrique’s eyes got even bigger, if that were possible, as I lifted him into my lap in the front seat of our kombi (vw bus). He snuggled against me, suddenly quiet and shy. I didn’t mind a bit. He fiddled nervously with the broken Strawberry Shortcake watch on his arm until we reached the broken shelter spot we call “our place” to work with the kids.

Today was tie dye, generously given by a wonderful couple who had visited Brazil. The kids went crazy with rubber bands, and all I did for a solid twenty minutes was say, “Hey! Back in line—one at a time!” for dipping their bandanas in the dye. Unforeseen problems included the fact that they wore the bandanas, still dripping with dye, instantly. They went over to the neighbor’s water supply and dipped their bandanas in it, and then filled their plastic gloves and started water wars with the now completely blue-brown water.

After apologies and laughter and reprimands and “DON’T put that on your head nows,” we headed home.  Entering the city, we passed a group of women with their groceries, walking back towards the dump (a couple miles away). Already late, Washington turned to me and said, “Mind if I take them home?” Mind? We had the same mind. Back out the city we went, through the trash and then I saw it. Only then.

The brilliant sunflower, proudly tall in the middle of the pile of trash. Growing up through the plastic sacks and remains of who knows what it grew. We stopped for a moment of reflection, the wind reminding us we were still in the middle of the dump. “I tried to plant sunflowers in my back yard and they never grew!” Remarked my friend. “That is because you already had all the blessings you needed,” Commented Washington, “And here, in the middle of all this grime, they needed one more blessing. One thing beautiful. It shows up clearest in the darkest background.”