If you had told me a seemingly short five years ago that now I would be the boss of a pig barn, I would probably laugh right in your face. For those who know me...I'm not much of the farming type, you know? Born in the city, raised in the city, I just really love city! But, God has a way of working in the most wayward of us, and that's how I ended up working in a pig barn.
After school and lunch, all the boys at El Sembrador have to go work for two hours every weekday and four hours on Saturday. They're organized into thirteen groups of seven. One person is the coordinator and in charge of all the students in the group. When I came here, I wanted to fit in as much as possible with the boys. I wanted them to feel like I was one of them. So I joined the work roster. I was put in group number two, and we took the quarter-mile walk to the porquerisa, or pig barn.
There are four areas of the porquerisa. There's the feed making area, the maternity ward, the pens for adult pigs for sale, and the pens for the birthing pigs. When my group of seven went to porquerisa, I went to the pens for adult pigs. Generally, the smaller people go and do that job, because there's heavy lifting in feed making, and the birthing pigs outweigh me by half. There's twelve pens in the adult's area, and each is filled with about 40 pigs. My job, usually along with two or three other boys, is to scoop the poop down the slight incline to the grate, and then scrub the floor with water and a broom.
I worked at that job for two weeks, and when it came time to leave, I didn't want to! Nick Solheim wanted to be around nasty, 200 pound pigs?! Gross! Not to mention the fact I had to shower for thirty minutes everyday just to get the smell out of my skin! But, my favorite thing about the job was that it was something I could do without thinking. I could be cleaning, and talk to the boys. Find out when their family visited, what they were excited for, what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. I loved everything about it!
Soon, after a few weeks, the jefe (boss) of all the work came to me and asked me to be the coordinator of all boys that come to the pig barn. So now, I not only scoop pig poop, but I get to tell other boys how to do it!
This is a great blessing to me, because throughout this year as the boys rotate, I will get to know every single one. What an opportunity God has dropped in my lap for ministry! I think with all that, I can get over the smell!
