Mountains, Plastic, Sea.
We start the day heading to El Ejido, where we are welcomed by the CEPAIM Association. We divided ourselves into three groups to explore the plastic sea that surrounds the area. We are guided by Abdelaziz, a Moroccan who has been in Spain for 30 years and who lived for some months amidst those plastics. When production is at a peak, up to 9,000 people can survive by working 12 hours a day for about 17 euros [20 dollars a day], a modern form of slavery that many immigrants face after reaching the “promised land.”
For miles around, everything is dominated by the white from the lime that the plastics carry, the land splashed by shacks with satellite dishes, unmistakable sign of that there resides an immigrant family. Others have less “luck” and survive in sheds within the same plastics.
The scenes that appear in front of us make us wonder at times if we are still in Spain, as these subhuman conditions often go unnoticed.
The route ends on a hillside that separates this modern slave planatation in plastics from a residential tourist complex where the upper-middle class spends their summer.
At noon we board the ship that will take us to a new continent. During the crossing we can not stop thinking about the thousands of people who have left their lives in the sea.
God continues to talk to us in every corner, whether on the boat, in the van or visiting projects.
The stories are making a dent in us and the news is heard in a different way. We soak up each of the moments that God gives us, with the certainty that He accompanies us in every step we take.
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