We visited an invisible city within the city today. According to all the maps of Buenos Aires, this city is non-existent, though over 35,000 people live in these 65 hectares of land.

During the 1978 world championships, the government hid the city by building a wall around it. It doesn´t have a real name, but is referred to as "the neighborhood" or in politics, shanty town #21.

50 years ago this area was a complete waste land, the garbage dump of the city. It is situated on the bank of the most contaminated river in the world and there is no avoiding the rotting stench plaguing every corner. Even today the roads are paved with nothing but trash and dirt. Though part of a world-class mega-city, this community receives no electricity, running water, or any sort of public services. The police don´t come here to protect but to repress. For an invisible people, there is no such thing as law enforcement.

The children do not trespass through the borders of the surrounding communities. They have no place in the fancy new malls and plazas, grand avenues and high rises, or classy neighborhoods that fill the same city. Some of these are 2nd or 3rd generation shanty-town dwellers and know nothing else. For so many of them, there is no work ethnic, no effort, no hope. Young people will hook up just to conceive children and relieve their poverty through government aid.

And the government´s role in all this? The only response the government has supplied is eradication. Eradication means plunging into shanty-towns with bulldozers and the instant destruction of thousands of homes. Within the urbanized culture of anonymity and passivity, institutionalized politics is selfish and corrupt; a vote means nothing but an exchange for a kilo of food or cash.

A more prominent and hopeful source of informal politics is the church. The church is more than a religion, but a social movement. The front of the church is painted with a revolutionary Jesus advocating for peace, equality, and justice, followed by children and flags of every nation. This holistic incarnational ministry organizes an invisible people and serves social, political, and spiritual purposes.

Over the past year, the population of this shanty town alone has increased by over 30%, and towns like this have been popping up all over the province of Buenos Aires. Though Argentina is a huge country with abundant natural resources, the system is such that the capital city usurps resources from the rest of the country. People have no other way of survival but to try to find work in the city. And as Argentina "progresses," the disparities and inequalities only grow greater.

This is only a snippet of what I have been seeing. The crazy system under which humanity operates is so broken, I don´t even know where to begin fixing it. It is in the face of hopelessness that I hang on to God and His promises and faithfulness to us. I am such an idealistic person and want so much to see our world transformed, a transformation that will only take place when Jesus comes in all His glory.

Still, I hope I am ready to listen and obey when God shows me my place and role in all of this while I am here on Earth. Please pray for peace, wisdom, and discernment, as there is so much running through my mind right now. And don´t forget the millions of invisible people living in slums and shanty-towns all over the world tonight.

-Annie

Its a rainy day here in Buenos Aires. The sidewalks are not only wet and full of put holes, but also an unparalleled amount of dog droppings. The Porteños (the name for residents of Buenos Aires) are less friendly than I expected, but maybe its because I'm forgetting that I'm in a megacity and not an African village. I guess this is as friendly as it gets in the face of urbanization.
It's been an intense couple of weeks. We've been introduced to the hundreds of urban issues--poverty, segregation, pollution, waste removal, politics, corruption, gentrification, and shanty towns are just a handful of them. It's scary to think that cities are the future of humanity...its said to be the most efficient way to sustain a growing population. Within a decade or two, the world is projected to have over 60 megacities (San Francisco is not one of them yet). A lot of the things I'm learning are quite shocking and depressing.... I don't think I will ever see the world in the same way again.

The other day I had a really interesting conversation with an Indigenous woman from the Amazon who was making and selling jewelry on the streets. Spanish was a second language for both of us. There isn't even a handful of indigenous people in the city anymore. Buenos Aires prides itself in being a very European city. The indigenous have been tragically persecuted in the past and there is still quite a bit of prejudice towards them in many parts of latinoamerica. Though they are no longer persecuted, the indigenous everywhere are greatly exploited.

Anyway, this woman named cielo azul is from a hidden village in Peru ( She tells me the government has no knowledge of their existence). Her greatest desire is for her village to remain unknown and uncontaminated from the world, suggesting that ignorance is bliss. Cielo Azul (blue sky) left her village when she was a young woman and now has no other option but to remain in the world to support her children (she's a single mother who suffered years of abuse from a non-indigenous husband). Her children want nothing to do with their indigenous roots. Every 3 months she goes back to visit her village but she has to enter and leave the village empty handed. It's a journey through the amazon that takes several days on foot. Cielo Azul described their way of life to me and it seemed so beautiful, almost like a Utopian society. Of a population of 5,000, only 3 of them are "in the world". (And they practice population control by limiting births to two children per woman)

I attended church all weekend long and it was quite interesting and very refreshing. There are several Salvation Army corps here (most of them in the poor, needy, and dangerous parts of town! yay!) I definitely missed it and needed it--it is always so encouraging to see the church doing God´s work in the world. It is super hard to connect with people in the city, a lot harder than all the other places I've been to. The church has really been the only viable way.
Many of the students in my group are struggling with community and adjustment, and frustrated and confused with all the issues that we are learning about--so keep us in your prayers. It´s only been a week but it feels so much longer, I am more homesick than ever on this trip but as always, God has been so good and faithful and he is providing for us and showing us great things here. So I am so thankful and excited for all that He has planned for us.

blessings,
Annie