A change of plans leads me to be beginning working mornings tomorrow! I would appreciate prayer as I am adjusting to an entirely new schedule. However, it might be nice for a change of pace for the remaining months of my time here. Also, I have not been feeling well since my trip to Sucre, I'd also appreciate prayers for that.
On a fun language note, yesterday my friend, Kayla, and I went to get lunch at a local coffee shop. We paid and as we were leaving I realized that the lady had managed to charge me less than she should have. I turned around and marched inside and explained the situation, we got it all figured out and walked out the door for the second time. All of the sudden I turned to my friend, I had just realized that, in my preoccupation with figuring out the math of what had happened, I had not given a single thought to the fact that I would have to speak in Spanish to explain it. (Normally, when I am with Kayla, I make her do the talking as she has been speaking Spanish longer than I have.) It was a fun, confidence building experience!
Also, one of the middle-aged tias and I have begun to chat more, especially on our walks to pick up the kids. One day, she and I were talking and I mentioned that I am much more talkative in English but in Spanish, I prefer to listen because I don't want to mess up the language. She looked at me and said, in an almost chastising manner, "But Tia, we would help you!!!" Since then, she and I talk more often and I know that I can ask her to define words or I don't mind venturing out on the wild side of attempting the dangerous conjugations of unfamiliar verbs while I am in her presence. ;)
On Friday, I was left alone for a little more than an hour with the six of the kids, (the rest were in school.) It was fun, we sat on the floor and ate popcorn and then played a game that consisted of me pretending to be a sleeping wolf while they hid and then them running away (or in some cases beating me up) when I pretended to search for and "eat" (tickle) them. I frequently had to repeat, to two little boys in particular, "you can't hit me, I'm not a real wolf."
However, being alone with them wasn't all fun and games, it also meant that I had to be the disciplinarian (which doesn't always work for me.) Yobani kept hitting and getting angry so I took him into a corner and sat him in a chair and tried to talk to him. He was screaming and pinching my arm and scratching me. Part of me wanted to laugh, but I restrained myself.
"Do you want to hurt me?" I asked,
"YES," He wailed miserably.
"But why?" I questioned, "I don't want to hurt you."
He continued pinching but not quite as hard as before.
(please don't judge this word choice, it was the first thing that came out of my mouth.)
"I don't want you to be a brute, I want you to learn to be a good man," I told him, he looked at me with his big brown eyes filled with angry tears.
"Are you acting like a brute or a good man?" I asked him.
His chubby cheeks were slightly flushed from his fit and he looked down at his feet. "A brute."
He then switched from scratching and pinching, to stroking my hand with a gentleness that moments before had seemed quite unlikely to be bestowed upon me anytime in the near future. His little two-year-old arms squeezed my neck and I let him go play, for the rest of our time that afternoon the reminder to "be a good man" changed his attitude to a more gentle manner. It was so cute!!!
However, my disciplinarian skills didn't get me too far with four-year-old Daniel. He would listen and apologize and then go right back to disobeying. *sigh* Nevertheless, it was fun and I got them playing together as a group instead of just running around, so that felt like a success and made things much more enjoyable.
As I am entering this new "position" in the baby house, (being the only tia with the five littles all morning) I would also appreciate prayer that, along with improving my Spanish and disciplinarian skills, I would be able to bring Christ into our mornings... I don't know exactly what that looks like, it is easier in English when I don't have to figure out what I am trying to say and fit it all in during the brief attention span that they have. Plus, it comes more naturally in English, in Spanish, I have to plan how I am going to bring it in. Don't get me wrong, occasionally it works out, but often times I get bogged down in the grammatical tenses and end up getting strange looks from the kids and I end up just giving them a hug and telling them to go play. However, I want to be able to share more of eternal value and to glorify Christ in my words as well as actions. I don't want to just be the nice tia that doesn't like giving severe punishments... I want the kids to know from the way that I speak that I love Christ and that He loves them. I think there will be more opportunity as I will be able to incorporate the songs and stories that I want, versus whatever the other tias want, plus, I will be on my own, (my Spanish confidence automatically rises when I am alone.) But I would appreciate prayers that my remaining months here would be marked by increased boldness and wisdom in how to incorporate the gospel of Christ in day-to-day life, and that none of the tias or children would be able to think that I was just on a "humanitarian mission," but on a mission for Christ. I love the verse that says that the people could tell that the disciples had been with Christ... I want people to be pointed to Christ by my manner of life. And not by what I write when I have time to think about it, but by my daily life, when I am frustrated, when I am tired, when I am sad... Those are the times especially when I want it to be clear that I serve the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Oh, and earlier this week, five-year-old Raquel has acquired an obsession with learning English which has transferred to several of the others. One afternoon on the way home from school I had seven Bolivian children chanting after me the numbers from 1-20 over and over again! It was a blast. It is fun to see which kids have the best pronunciation, which ones can remember the order that the numbers go in, Raquel is definitely the most inquisitive, she sat on her bed while I helped her get dressed and fired at me a steady stream of Spanish words that she wanted to know in English. She has pretty good pronunciation too. I made her try out some Russian words and she did those well too! She has taken to standing on my feet and making me walk around and she counts in English for each step. She has the hardest time with the word "three" and "sixteen."
And I have a pile of dirt on my windowsill that I need to clean because Jose Luis brought a broom and started scrubbing my screen and wall whilst chatting with me,
"Why are you cleaning my window?" I asked him.
"Because it's dirty." He informed me, not knowing that a billow of dust was coming off of his filthy broom from the irritation of being scrubbed against the screen. It was cute though, his obsession with talking to me through my window is quite humorous.
On a fun language note, yesterday my friend, Kayla, and I went to get lunch at a local coffee shop. We paid and as we were leaving I realized that the lady had managed to charge me less than she should have. I turned around and marched inside and explained the situation, we got it all figured out and walked out the door for the second time. All of the sudden I turned to my friend, I had just realized that, in my preoccupation with figuring out the math of what had happened, I had not given a single thought to the fact that I would have to speak in Spanish to explain it. (Normally, when I am with Kayla, I make her do the talking as she has been speaking Spanish longer than I have.) It was a fun, confidence building experience!
Also, one of the middle-aged tias and I have begun to chat more, especially on our walks to pick up the kids. One day, she and I were talking and I mentioned that I am much more talkative in English but in Spanish, I prefer to listen because I don't want to mess up the language. She looked at me and said, in an almost chastising manner, "But Tia, we would help you!!!" Since then, she and I talk more often and I know that I can ask her to define words or I don't mind venturing out on the wild side of attempting the dangerous conjugations of unfamiliar verbs while I am in her presence. ;)
On Friday, I was left alone for a little more than an hour with the six of the kids, (the rest were in school.) It was fun, we sat on the floor and ate popcorn and then played a game that consisted of me pretending to be a sleeping wolf while they hid and then them running away (or in some cases beating me up) when I pretended to search for and "eat" (tickle) them. I frequently had to repeat, to two little boys in particular, "you can't hit me, I'm not a real wolf."
However, being alone with them wasn't all fun and games, it also meant that I had to be the disciplinarian (which doesn't always work for me.) Yobani kept hitting and getting angry so I took him into a corner and sat him in a chair and tried to talk to him. He was screaming and pinching my arm and scratching me. Part of me wanted to laugh, but I restrained myself.
"Do you want to hurt me?" I asked,
"YES," He wailed miserably.
"But why?" I questioned, "I don't want to hurt you."
He continued pinching but not quite as hard as before.
(please don't judge this word choice, it was the first thing that came out of my mouth.)
"I don't want you to be a brute, I want you to learn to be a good man," I told him, he looked at me with his big brown eyes filled with angry tears.
"Are you acting like a brute or a good man?" I asked him.
His chubby cheeks were slightly flushed from his fit and he looked down at his feet. "A brute."
He then switched from scratching and pinching, to stroking my hand with a gentleness that moments before had seemed quite unlikely to be bestowed upon me anytime in the near future. His little two-year-old arms squeezed my neck and I let him go play, for the rest of our time that afternoon the reminder to "be a good man" changed his attitude to a more gentle manner. It was so cute!!!
However, my disciplinarian skills didn't get me too far with four-year-old Daniel. He would listen and apologize and then go right back to disobeying. *sigh* Nevertheless, it was fun and I got them playing together as a group instead of just running around, so that felt like a success and made things much more enjoyable.
As I am entering this new "position" in the baby house, (being the only tia with the five littles all morning) I would also appreciate prayer that, along with improving my Spanish and disciplinarian skills, I would be able to bring Christ into our mornings... I don't know exactly what that looks like, it is easier in English when I don't have to figure out what I am trying to say and fit it all in during the brief attention span that they have. Plus, it comes more naturally in English, in Spanish, I have to plan how I am going to bring it in. Don't get me wrong, occasionally it works out, but often times I get bogged down in the grammatical tenses and end up getting strange looks from the kids and I end up just giving them a hug and telling them to go play. However, I want to be able to share more of eternal value and to glorify Christ in my words as well as actions. I don't want to just be the nice tia that doesn't like giving severe punishments... I want the kids to know from the way that I speak that I love Christ and that He loves them. I think there will be more opportunity as I will be able to incorporate the songs and stories that I want, versus whatever the other tias want, plus, I will be on my own, (my Spanish confidence automatically rises when I am alone.) But I would appreciate prayers that my remaining months here would be marked by increased boldness and wisdom in how to incorporate the gospel of Christ in day-to-day life, and that none of the tias or children would be able to think that I was just on a "humanitarian mission," but on a mission for Christ. I love the verse that says that the people could tell that the disciples had been with Christ... I want people to be pointed to Christ by my manner of life. And not by what I write when I have time to think about it, but by my daily life, when I am frustrated, when I am tired, when I am sad... Those are the times especially when I want it to be clear that I serve the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Oh, and earlier this week, five-year-old Raquel has acquired an obsession with learning English which has transferred to several of the others. One afternoon on the way home from school I had seven Bolivian children chanting after me the numbers from 1-20 over and over again! It was a blast. It is fun to see which kids have the best pronunciation, which ones can remember the order that the numbers go in, Raquel is definitely the most inquisitive, she sat on her bed while I helped her get dressed and fired at me a steady stream of Spanish words that she wanted to know in English. She has pretty good pronunciation too. I made her try out some Russian words and she did those well too! She has taken to standing on my feet and making me walk around and she counts in English for each step. She has the hardest time with the word "three" and "sixteen."
And I have a pile of dirt on my windowsill that I need to clean because Jose Luis brought a broom and started scrubbing my screen and wall whilst chatting with me,
"Why are you cleaning my window?" I asked him.
"Because it's dirty." He informed me, not knowing that a billow of dust was coming off of his filthy broom from the irritation of being scrubbed against the screen. It was cute though, his obsession with talking to me through my window is quite humorous.
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