As summer winds to a close, the BuildaBridge office is buzzing as our staff prepare to kick off our 2008-2009 Create! Discovery program. Now in its fourth year, Create! Discovery partners with community agencies in Philadelphia to bring arts-integrated education to low-income children and youth, many of whom are coping with homelessness.

Just before the afternoon session began, it started to rain—really, really hard. It was raining sideways, and, because the school is at the base of a valley, all of the water flows downhill towards it. While it normally trickled down the steep bank towards the sewage creek, the water shot out of the pipe, roughly five feet across, at a frighteningly high velocity. The water came out almost horizontally and nearly cleared the entire creek. It was almost as if created for an amusement park—only more intense. I could picture the raft full of shrieking passengers going through the torrent and over the rapids.

The afternoon storm had threatened houses and created swirling rapids in the sewage creek. The following day, as the children arrived for their final presentation, “mineros,” miners, took advantage of the lowered water level to search for recyclables to sell. The color and enthusiasm inside the school seemed to exist in a world outside of the slum, but the dirt on the kids’ clothes and the miners outside brought back the reality of their situation and the world in which they live.

On the balcony earlier, Evertsz said that some time ago God had come to her in a dream, instructing her to visit the gang member with whom we had spoken outside of the school. While she was afraid, she went anyway. Later on, he was shot. This was one of the first times he had been out of bed in months.

“See all the shotgun blasts? That’s why people don’t like to have windows.” While the rest of the group continued their teaching, I ventured “al otro lado,” to the other side. There is no fence separating the two sides; the gangs decide the perimeters.

A four year old child responding to an inquiry about how to solve problems or conflicts made a comment about bringing a machete. This begs the question, what has he seen? La Limonada is one of the most dangerous and poverty-stricken areas of Guatemala City, and seventy percent of the children have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused. Nevertheless, the children there have the same needs as children in the safest gated communities of America.