A BITTERSWEET REUNION

A special Dateline investigation on adoption in Guatemala airs on NBC Sunday, Jan. 20 at 7pm ET.

By Leonor Ayala, Dateline Field Producer

Jalapa, Guatemala- Five-year-old Candida Galicia tugged patiently and gently at my arm. I finally looked down only to see her little, round face smiling back up at me.

Now that she had my attention, she grabbed my arm and marched me right to the back of the shanty house.

Candida explained she needed to use the bathroom and asked if I could help her. I was the slightest bit confused by this request. As we approached this small hut in the back, I quickly realized I was there to help her lift a huge piece of aluminum used to cover the hole in the ground. As I lifted it off, the putrid smell hit my nose and I recoiled a bit.

Candida (pictured below) was totally unaffected and she continued to smile brightly and thanked me for my help. She was obviously happy to be home.

For a minute I was caught up in the moment unfolding before me: a desperate mother and father were in shock. Two of their kidnapped children somehow returned to them.

Candida's parents Rodolfo and Clara Galicia realized how blessed they were, knowing full well that many other Guatemalan families lose their children never to see them again.

But their story is bittersweet; more than a year after three of their daughters were kidnapped, one is still missing. Every day that passes with no news on Enma’s whereabouts is devastating for the Galicias.

I speak fluent Spanish, so when I left Guatemala after the reunion in early March 2007, it was my job to call the district attorney’s office and police, both in Jalapa and Guatemala City, on a weekly basis. I was supposed to find out what, if any, progress had been made on the case so we could update our story if there was a break in the case.

Every week it was the same answer: no progress. I became frustrated. It seemed to me there were basic things they could do like post her picture, set up a tip line, or use the local media to get out the word. But that just isn't the case in Guatemala.

Authorities admit they are slow to investigate because of a lack of resources. They say they don't have the personnel or equipment to properly investigate virtually any case let alone this one. And Enma's case is a low priority given the crime wave of gang violence, brutal muggings and murder. This is a country still in recovery from 36 years of civil strife, in which more than 200,000 people were killed.

Police say they are concerned about Enma Galicia, but after all she is just one child on a very long list of missing children in Guatemala. (Enma is pictured below in an artist's progression from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.)

We went back to Guatemala several times after that reunion. We wanted to document the plight of Guatemalan children as explained to us by locals and experts, the child labor, the children who are living in the streets in abject poverty or who have been relegated to a life of crime.

My crew and I first went to La Linea -- or "The Line" -- a seedy area of Guatemala City where a train track runs through the center. We saw women we were told are prostitutes standing at their doors waiting for customers, looking at us with disdain.

We went to a part of town called La Limonada -- or "The Lemonade" -- where we were warned not to step out of the car because of the stealth nature of crimes committed there, especially against foreigners. (I am told its nickname is an analogy for the way people are "squeezed dry.")

We also went to the main market for many poor locals called La Terminal -- or "The Terminal" -- which is also notorious for its crime. We went to the city dump, which has been documented in other news programs because poor children would often sift through the garbage looking for food.

In the city, we saw five-year-olds walking through highly trafficked streets, begging for money, trying to clean the windshields of passersby -- anything to earn a couple of quetzales.

Casa Alianza, a non-profit, invited me to go along as they visited with homeless street kids to administer care. Their living situation -- if you could call it that -- was appalling.

The poverty and seeming desperation was apparent in all corners. But for every child I saw on the streets of Guatemala - I thought back to that day with Candida and realized that for all the poverty, she was obviously happy to be back with her parents, no matter how simple their living conditions.

Yet I still wonder what will happen to Candida in the next couple of years; will she go to school? Will she cross the borders of her dusty Jalapa again? Will she attend university? Will she ever again see her sister Enma? Will she ever forget what happened to her during those harrowing five months in Guatemala City?