These two boys stole my heart.

I remember being at the worksite in Jiquilillo completely exhausted, watching as this little boy carried away tree branches that were easily twice his size. Seeing that he could probably use my gloves more than me, I walked over and offered them to him. Of course, he didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Spanish - so I took his hands in mine and slipped the gloves on. He looked down at the gloves, then up at me, and smiled the most beautifully sincere smile that I have ever seen. The little boy’s name is Luis, and his brother Oskar was just a few feet away at the top of a tree, cutting down branches and putting all of us volunteers to shame.

From there on out, Luis and I became a team. He would use his insane machete skills to cut down the branches, and I took over Luis’s job of carrying them away. We would wander around the work site together, throwing rocks to see whose would go the farthest (Luis always won), and battling each other in sword fights with swords created from cornhusks (Luis also always won at this too). This land that we walked around on was consumed by trees, brush, and garbage.

If you click on the link here, you’ll see the same plot of land where I met Luis and Oskar, except this time, you won’t see Luis and Oskar cutting down any trees.