Good Morning... and Good Night

It's Friday morning, and today I was supposed to leave early and help the driver get hay for the horses at Tesoros. Well... It's about an hour and half after he was supposed to pick me up, so I'm assuming he forgot.  Or possibly this is cultural? Oh well, it gives me an opportunity to write a little bit.

I've started to get into a little bit of a routine here, which is helpful for adjusting. I leave for Tesoros around 7:40 in the morning, and then I'm there until about 4:30 in the afternoon. In the morning from 8-12 I have my Spanish tutor. I need to say a little bit about that... When every day is basically a spanish class in itself, having four hours of class straight isn't the most fun. My tutor doesn't speak English, which, I suppose will help me learn faster, but makes things a little difficult at times. Right around the third hour I start to get quite antsy and my brain is telling me to quit. The last hour we have conversation, which I do enjoy a little more, and we talk about everything from family, to education, to health care. It's funny, I'm ready to be done with the class at the end of it, but there's really no break... everyone's still speaking spanish! But I am definitely learning a lot and I do think it is helping. Interesante. I'm am supposed to have it this afternoon, but I guess we'll see.

In the afternoons, I'm usually working with the kids. Sometimes I will do physical therapy with some of them, depending on how many kids come. Most of the kids that we do therapy with have cerebral palsy. I was talking to Michelle (the director) about it the other day, and I asked her why there were so many kids with CP. She said that a lot of times the mothers don't receive adequate care while they are pregnant, or while the child is being born, they experience asphyxiation. One mother she told me about was stung by a scorpion, and that was a cause, along with poor health care. It's sad because we both know that a lot of these cases could be prevented. I've been getting to know a 16 year old boy with CP named David. The other day I was helping him do some puzzle exercises, and after we finished that he was pointing to a soccer ball. So we started playing. I found out that David loves soccer, and he was having a ton of fun. We played yesterday again, and we both really enjoy it. Sometimes its difficult to connect with the kids, or feel that the attention and care you are giving them is being received. However, I know that despite the fact that most of them can't respond well, or react to what we are doing, I also know that many of them are processing and enjoying what we are doing, we're getting to know each other, and I think that they understand a lot more than we give them credit for. Maybe the other people that work there know this, but for me, I'm learning and remember that the connection isn't a reward for myself or there to make me feel like I've accomplished something by connecting with them, but it really is all about them, helping them have the fullest emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational life possible. If I can be a small part of something bigger in their lives, it will be quite a privilege for me.

An entire busload of kids just showed up at the house. I'm pretty sure they're from the church, and it looks like they're going camping. I just asked Lupe and he said they're camping at the house.

Well, it's Sunday night right now; I kind of put the blog writing on hold for a couple days.

I went to Leon this weekend, to visit Hannah's host family. I was a little worried about traveling, because it seemed like everyone was telling me that it was dangerous, and you should have someone go with you, and should really be careful. So yeah, kind of anxious about the trip. Thankfully, I was going to travel with Nana, and I felt a little more comfortable. We left at 6:00 on saturday morning for the bus station. Nana met her two sisters there, and we were looking for our bus. The sisters were talking together, and all of a sudden Nana tells me to go with her sisters, and she hops on a bus and takes off. Ooookay. I, in my conditioned apprehension for traveling, was a little confused and nervous. We (me and Nana's sisters) started walking away from the terminal. Instead of taking a large bus, we took a micro bus, which is a little better than the large busses. Thankfully, the rest of the trip went fine, and I met Papa at the terminal (2 hours late :/ )

The point of that story is that I had no idea what was going on. And as I stood there, my uncomfortableness was mostly due to the fact that I could not understand, or communicate with them and ask them questions. I realize what a gift communication is, being in situations where I'm not able to. Being able to communicate gives me confidence, the ability to know, the ability to persuade. And we are lost without it. More than once this weekend I've thought of the tower of Babel. What that must have been like! That event thousands of years ago is affecting me at this very moment. It's a huge example of how our pride ruins us. I was just reading Mere Christianity, and one chapter addresses our pride, saying that most of our faults and sins can be boiled down to our pride. Pride was the reason the devil became the devil, the reason Adam ate the fruit, the reason men tried to build the tower, and the reason I stood confused in the bus terminal. It reminds me of the humility I need to have, the right kind of humility too. Crazy how God reminds me of that.

Okay, 3 days in the making, and I think I'm gonna call this one good.
Peace and Love.