Today the Kids were Kids

Leonel and Anita on the slide

Today I "swam" with the kids at Hermano Pedro for the first time.  Actually, it was more like I walked around in the water, bouncing and swaying Luis Andres.  This little guy is so constricted with Cerebral Palsy that he hardly relaxes even in the warm water of the pool.  But he seemed to enjoy the water and the play anyway.  Today there were about 10 of us in the pool with about 10 kids, and it was the "free-est" I've seen most of the kids ever.  Sorry, no pictures, since I was too busy holding Luis Andres above water to take any.  (Besides, I'm not sure I'm humble enough yet to be seen in public in a bathing suit!)

After swimming I held and played with Leslie for about 45 min.  This dear one is blind, but really responsive and very bright.  The charge nurse came over and told me they were working on teaching her to touch her facial features, so I made up a song and we practiced this over and over.  Leslie is kind of special to me since our Westside Church team, which arrives tomorrow, will be building a house for her family in Santa Rosa.  Tonight I was able to pick the brain of a friend of mine who is a specialist in working with the visually impaired, and she gave me some great ways to begin working with Leslie on communicating.  Thanks, Donna.  Wish you were here.

I then got to go to lunch at, where else, Pollo Campero with about five of the kids and a family that is spending time here this summer.  Anita and Gary, and their two girls, Rachel and Grace are from outside of Indiannapolis, and have been here a number of weeks.  They leave next Saturday (I think) and wanted to treat the kids before they left.  We had a great time, and I do have pictures from this outing. After lunch we played on the playground at the restaurant for a while, and the kids loved it.  Henry, one of the more able boys, decided to play "tienda" (store) with Rachel and Grace, and I so enjoyed seeing his imagination come alive.  These outings are so good for the kids.  They get a chance to be real kids!

Dick went back early with one of the kids who was having problems, and I was responsible for kids out in the community for the first time.  Didn't realize how much I would feel the weight of the responsibility for them, especially I was only in physical control of one of them.  This family is great with the kids, though, so I really had no cause to worry.  Was just a little surprised at how pressured I felt to make sure everyone got back safely.  (Yeah, Dick, I know you warned me!)

A special treat was encountering 2 "rescue dogs" in Central Park.  They were the gentlest dogs I think I've ever seen, and most of the kids had a wonderful time petting and holding them.  Again, this activity which is so common to childhood was a unique experience for our kids.  Again, it was so good to see them just being kids!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Church this morning was good. Once again, Pastor Mike’s sermon challenged me; makes me think. I like that. I was so afraid I’d stop growing not necessarily in my relationship with God, but in my knowledge of Him. Don’t think that will happen after hearing Pastor Mike preach two Sundays. He has a great way of weaving the truth in with a challenge. Today’s challenge was: “What are you doing to put whatever measure of Love, Faith and Obedience you have into action?” He focused not so much on how much love and faith each of us has, but on how obedient we are in putting it into action. I think I can chew on this one for at least a week.


I experienced communion for the first time at Caminos today. They do it differently than I have ever experienced it. Pastor Mike breaks a large loaf of bread in half and leaves it on the table with a cup of grape juice. Each person goes up, breaks off a piece, dips it in the grape juice, and eats. For some reason, I found this active participation in “taking and eating” very meaningful. Don’t know how often they do communion, but am glad they did it today.

Had lunch with the family and some friends of theirs from the city. Their daughter is the first person with Down’s that I’ve seen in Guatemala. She is very bright and verbal young woman, though a little shy.  Her mom pulled me aside to talk about her.  She really is a sweetheart. And you can tell her folks have done a lot to stimulate her and care very deeply for her.  After seeing all the kids whose parents can't take care of them, even though they love them, it was kind of nice to see a family able to keep their child and help her grow.
 
 Leo and Mari take great pleasure in telling people how I’m now living with them “forever” and Leo continues to introduce me as his “American Mama.” This is pretty funny, since I’m pretty sure he’s as old as I am, if not older! It feels good to be part of a family that I'm not the "head" of.


Raining again. Sounds like a good time for a nap! It feels rather funny to take two days in a row off just to relax. But I know I need it. In church today I realized how much I need just to be a participant in worship and not responsible for anything. I don’t want to become a pew sitter, but after years of having Sunday morning responsibilities, it’s kind of nice just to be able to focus on worship.  Seems like maybe my act of obedience right now is to focus on being with more than doing things for Jesus. 
 
I think that maybe one of the biggest mistakes we Christians make is putting our Faith and Love into action, before we check out how God is calling us to do this.  Maybe some of us are mature enough to just sense His movement in our hearts at all times, but I still think it's good to stop and check things out with Him.  So, I'm trying to do what He has shown me to do, right here, right now.  And I'm trying to keep the focus on Him, looking for what He is doing in the  people and situations I encounter every day, and asking Him how He is inviting me to join Him in His work.  Right now that's giving me more than enough to do.

The Ministry of "Hanging Out"

I started out this morning planning on doing laundry and hanging around the house.  That changed about 9 a.m. when my friend Dick called to invite me to see Toy Story 3 with him and 7 of his neighborhood kids.  Dick lives in Chimaltenango, about 30 min. from Antigua, and opens his home and his heart to any and all kids in his neighborhood.  They are great kids, and seem to have accepted me as part of the group without too much difficulty.  Fernando, my favorite, keeps asking when I'm going to come to Dick's house to cook for them!

We were a bit surprised when we walked out of the movie theater and saw it was pouring.  Though this is rainy season, it was rather early in the day for such a heavy rain.  We found the group's usual restaurants were full, since most have TV and the World Cup game (which Spain won) was on.  It's amazing to me the popularity of  "futball" (soccer) here.  It makes Husker Mania seem like a mild infatuation. 

Anyway, Dick and the kids brought me back to Antigua.  I was once again grateful for Dick's expert navigation of the roads in Guatemala, even when they become more like rivers than highways.  I sure wouldn't have wanted to be driving in this storm.  And, no, this is not a hurricane, or even a tropical storm.  Just normal rainy season!

We decided to eat lunch at (where else) Pollo Camperos in Antigua.  This too was crowded, though there was no TV. We managed to find enough seats in the outside play area. (Thankfully it had stopped raining.) Added to my list of  "only in Guatemala" events, is that only in Guatemala would kids consider a guy cleaning out a storm drain trap a spectator sport.  Most of them seemed to enjoy watching the guy at Camperos who was doing just that.

Dick is teaching me more and more the value of the "ministry of hanging out" with folks, especially kids.  One young lady, Olga, has no mother in the home, and has become quite special to me already.  She was the only girl with us today, but holds her own with the boys quite well.  I noticed, though, that she would hang close to me, and sometimes make comments like, "Boys! What do you expect!"  I think she appreciated having another female along for the trip, and I hope to get to know her better in the days to come.  And the only way to do this is by "hanging out," so hang out I will. 

An Ordinary Day

Today, Friday, was a pretty ordinary day.  Started out answering emails and doing paperwork in the "garden" of my home.  Bright sunshine, cool breeze, a good cup of coffee.  I'm really getting spoiled down here.  In some ways I'm learning to work hard without pressure (if that makes any sense). 

Went to Hermano Pedro about 10 am and spent time playing with the kids.  Bobby, who I wrote about the other day is much better, but now Jojo (picture at top) has a horrible congestion in his chest.  Today I held him while he had a breathing treatment, which he absolutely hates.  I can't imagine what it would be like to just have to lie in bed alone and experience this.  Hopefully, holding him made it a bit easier for him to handle.  Couldn't help missing my grandson, Zach, a bit while I was doing this.  Zach needed LOTS of breathing treatments when he was little, and didn't like them any more than Jojo does.

Went to lunch with a mission team from Seattle that has been down working with Bethel.  Today was there last day and they were spending it with the kids.  It was a youth group and their sponsors, and I'd met one of their leaders about a year ago down here.  We had some interesting discussions about short term mission teams, and then went back to Hermano Pedro.  The kids on this team were a bit hesitant at first (I think they were afraid the kids would break--understandable since the look so fragile), but after a while dove right in. 

I wasn't with the team too long, though, because Ninette (Bethel's teacher at Hermano Pedro) asked me to help Moisis with his homework from his English class. Moi is one of only two kids at the orphanage who attend school in the community.  In the afternoon, Ninette helps him and Sonya with their homework, after teaching her regular morning class of the orphanage kids.  Ninette  does not speak English, however, and was very happy to have someone who could help with this part of Moi's work.  It also gave us a time to visit and get better acquainted.  Ninette has no special ed training, but does an amazing joy with the kids, and I hope I can support her.  She's a natural with the kids, and the love her as well as learn from her.

Tonight promises to be a quiet night at home.  I might even read some for fun!  Each night I seem to be going to bed unable to keep my eyes open, but excited for the coming day.

Simple things bring great joy!

Carlitos, who is rapidly becoming a favorite!

Since I took yesterday "off" from the orphanage, it was a little hard to get motivated to hike over there this morning.  It's not really a hike, but the 10 block walk can be a bit daunting first thing in the morning.  Am glad I got motivated though.

As I was leaving my room this morning, I caught sight of some plastic cups Donna had purchased for an activity with Lily.  "I wonder if Ervin could sort these by size?"  So I took them with me.  When I got to the orphanage, Ervin was in his wheelchair, with his wheels tied so he could not move.  There are a lot of reasons for this, none of which I really like, but all of which I can understand.  So I told Ervin I would take him out of his wheelchair only if he was willing to walk with me.  And walk he did.  And he lost his pants!  After a quick diaper change, we were back at it, and soon found a way of walking together and a rhythm that suited us both. 

After a while, Ervin decided to sit in one of the arm chairs on the porch outside their ward.  I pulled out the cups, and he immediately crushed one--though it was not broken.  After a quick demonstration, it was clear that sorting by size is something we will have to work up to.  So I decided to see if he would stack the cups.  And he did this with gusto.  We spent half an hour stacking cups--a simple activity, but he was so happy to be doing something somewhat meaningful. Each time he would move a cup from one stack to the other, he's grin from ear to ear and clap his hands! (I wish I had pictures of this, but thought that working with Ervin was more important than taking pictures of him.)

A fringe benefit of this activity that I'd not anticipated was that Ervin's desirability as a "playmate" sky-rocketed.  The most capable kids in the orphanage came over and wanted to "play" too.  At first I told them that this was just for Ervin, but he soon made it clear that he wanted to play with the other kids, and began taking turns with them on his own.  I almost cried watching this, as usually the kids are complaining about Ervin bothering them, and now they were WANTING to be with him.  I became somewhat of a by-stander as the kids stacked cups over and over again.  When one would fall, Elmer, who is pretty mobile, would screech in delight and crawl down from his chair to get it.  Such a simple thing brought such great joy, but I'm not sure who got more pleasure out of this activity, the kids or me.  This truly has made my week.

In the afternoon I held and fed Carlitos, and held and sang to Gloria.  They say Gloria is deaf, but she sure seemed to like being sung to (maybe that's why she like my singing?).  Spent a little time with some of the other kids, and all too soon it was time to leave. 

It seems that life is settling into a little bit of a rhythm here.  Not as quick paced or unpredictable as my life was in the States, but a comfortable pattern of activities, which may seem boring and repetitive from the outside, but are bringing me great peace and joy.  I never thought I would so much enjoy feeding a child, dressing or changing them, or just sitting rocking and holding them.  But this time is precious as I get to know each child (not just know about them) and they become part of my heart.  God is so good.