written: July 15, 2010
So my father used to always tell me that I was bullheaded.
And I picked fights with the bigger girls.
There is another team here this week and I am working with them as a translator. They are a nice group and I am enjoying the people that I am working with. We do a VBS in the morning at the school Siloe (where I have been working…did I mention that I am working at a school?) and then in the afternoons we do another VBS with the kids in the community. My job is to translate crafts and then just in general help out where needed. It is really just a lot of telling kids to sit down, be quiet and pay attention. However, I would like to share this story:
One thing a lot of the kids struggle with is self confidence, they come from homes where no one takes an interest in their day or praises them for their good works. Instead, they are told they are dumb, we are poor and you are going to end up just like us. This breaks my heart. I see so many wonderful kids here, and you can read the sadness in some of their faces all the time.
All that being said, I think it is important that the kids have some sort of expectations, some challenges to prove to themselves that they can succeed.
The other day I was working in crafts and one of the adults that I was working with was doing the project for a little girl who was about 8 years old. It was a simple craft and she could have done it by herself, she just needed a little help getting started. So I went over and said, “I think that all she needs is a little help, maybe you could hold it and she could tie the string.” He then looked back at me and said, “ no she is too young to do it, she can’t do it.” In very quick snappy Spanish replied to him, “did you let her try?” This is when I became furious because he said that she was too young and would not be able to do it and this was just quicker. My father’s bullheadedness showed up in that moment as I took the project from him and said, “I will show you, she can do it!” A few of the girls around said that she couldn’t do it either, and I looked at them and told them that she could do it. By this point I was determined to prove all of them wrong, and show that the little girl with the huge brown eyes and a quiet sadness could do it. I coached her through every step of the project, and 10 minutes later we had finished it. If I didn’t want that man to lose all respect for me, since I had already taken it away from him and told him that I would prove him wrong, I would have stuck out my tongue as a nice little “I told you so.”
I think from this quick experience, I learned that, A) I need to be more respectful of adults. But B) that even if given the chance, I believe that children can succeed if they are provided with the tools to do so. It is very important to allow kids to do some things for themselves. It doesn’t matter if they do it wrong, or it is not perfect. The point is to allow them to try.
The little girl left with a smile on her face, and I asked her what she was going to do with her project, and she said that she was going to go and show it to her mom when she got home.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
padres
written: June 29, 2010
One quick thing I wanted to write about was the parents that come to our children programs. So everyday our programs start with songs with Josué the translator. The songs are about frogs, that involving jumping, songs about baby Jesus, with a pregnant belly, and finally, the team favorite, “la Conga,” which involves doing a little shimming at the end. Needless to say, they are very much to get the kids excited about the program. However, we normally have a few parents that hang around to watch. So every day we do the same songs, and normally do the same silly things, like trying to get the adults to do the conga. But I think that it is great that every time they think it is the funniest thing. I can just imagine them saying to one another, “we are so silly for doing this little shimmy.” And I love how when we get coaches or pastors to do it, they just about die with laughter. I love their joy and their ability to just laugh.
One quick thing I wanted to write about was the parents that come to our children programs. So everyday our programs start with songs with Josué the translator. The songs are about frogs, that involving jumping, songs about baby Jesus, with a pregnant belly, and finally, the team favorite, “la Conga,” which involves doing a little shimming at the end. Needless to say, they are very much to get the kids excited about the program. However, we normally have a few parents that hang around to watch. So every day we do the same songs, and normally do the same silly things, like trying to get the adults to do the conga. But I think that it is great that every time they think it is the funniest thing. I can just imagine them saying to one another, “we are so silly for doing this little shimmy.” And I love how when we get coaches or pastors to do it, they just about die with laughter. I love their joy and their ability to just laugh.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
pictures
San Salvador
Coconut milk and Josue the Translator
typical meal?
luis
the kids next door on the island.
the Island we traveled to.
bubbles
english class students at La Comunidad
the view from my room
kids at the soccer camp question Jake about the world cup.
island adventures
written: July 3, 2010
From June 20-29th we had a short term here. It was really fun to have a group here to see the group in action. I have worked with groups in the past and this was defiantly one of the most passionate groups. They were always very willing to give to the community and form genuine bonds with people. Not like a get in, get the job done, and leave. I loved that about them. One of the outreaches that we did that we did was a visit to a nearby island called Isla Calsada. This island is located 1.5 hours by car and then a 50 minute ride in a lancha (speed boat type thing).
Upon arriving to the island we were greeting by running children, pigs and lots and lots of crabs. We walked to the church where we would be staying and set up. It was a 1 roomed building probably 50’ by 30’. We talked with the wife of the pastor and she told us that 1500 people live on this island, 300 on this little part. But it is very rural; there really is not a town or city central, paved roads or stores. People just live and do what they can with they can. Houses were made of mud and sticks and indoor plumbing is a thing of myths, and many of the people that we talked with said they had never left the island.
At the island we were working with the church to reach out to some of the people on the island. Even though there are 1500-2000 people there are only 7 churches and 3 schools. They said that their normal church attended was fairly low. The schools are also very interesting because they only go to 9th grade. So if the children want to continue their education they have to leave the island. However, most people cannot afford the commute of 2 dollars a day to take the lancha. So they are forced to stop school.
Throughout our 2 days there, we did a vacation bible school with the youth, a movie night for families and then had a teen time for the other kids. However, possibly my favorite thing that we did was breakfast. The breakfast was supposed to be for the teens that came to the gathering and then for our team. So we set up, and since we were 10 “gringos” and maybe 15 more Salvadorians, we attracted a little attention. People started walking by and peaking in, so we started to invite them in. We invited in a man we saw working in the field the day before, sat him down and gave him a plate of food and all the cereal he could eat.
Later a very old man with a cane walked in. He told us that his family doesn’t take care of him and he has no money to pay us, but would like some food. We pulled out a chair for him and told him to come and eat. He said that he was 70. I guessed him at about 85 years old, you could tell by his face that he had not had an easy life. He told us about how he did not have a wife or children, so he was living with his sister’s daughter and that they only gave him a little food and don’t help him with other things. He said he would like to go to a nursing home and asked if we could help him. This really touched me. I already love the elderly so I ask that you pray for him and for us that we can find some way to help him get the assistance that he needs.
Additionally, we had made friends with the children that lived in the house next door. They live in a tiny little one room house with their mother. There are 4 children and we think that the mother might be pregnant. We invited them to come and eat with us. The youngest boy even went and put on pants for the occasion. I loved watching them giggle as they ate their chocolate frosted flakes, wondering if they had ever had cereal before, yet instantly took to the custom of fighting over who got to read the back of the cereal box. Later, we took a few pictures of them over to the mother, and she just laughed at how silly her children were, hamming it up for the camera. This is the part of ministry that I love, being able to share in something together. Christ created us to be in fellowship and community with one another and I am so thankful that we got to exemplify that on the little island.
From June 20-29th we had a short term here. It was really fun to have a group here to see the group in action. I have worked with groups in the past and this was defiantly one of the most passionate groups. They were always very willing to give to the community and form genuine bonds with people. Not like a get in, get the job done, and leave. I loved that about them. One of the outreaches that we did that we did was a visit to a nearby island called Isla Calsada. This island is located 1.5 hours by car and then a 50 minute ride in a lancha (speed boat type thing).
Upon arriving to the island we were greeting by running children, pigs and lots and lots of crabs. We walked to the church where we would be staying and set up. It was a 1 roomed building probably 50’ by 30’. We talked with the wife of the pastor and she told us that 1500 people live on this island, 300 on this little part. But it is very rural; there really is not a town or city central, paved roads or stores. People just live and do what they can with they can. Houses were made of mud and sticks and indoor plumbing is a thing of myths, and many of the people that we talked with said they had never left the island.
At the island we were working with the church to reach out to some of the people on the island. Even though there are 1500-2000 people there are only 7 churches and 3 schools. They said that their normal church attended was fairly low. The schools are also very interesting because they only go to 9th grade. So if the children want to continue their education they have to leave the island. However, most people cannot afford the commute of 2 dollars a day to take the lancha. So they are forced to stop school.
Throughout our 2 days there, we did a vacation bible school with the youth, a movie night for families and then had a teen time for the other kids. However, possibly my favorite thing that we did was breakfast. The breakfast was supposed to be for the teens that came to the gathering and then for our team. So we set up, and since we were 10 “gringos” and maybe 15 more Salvadorians, we attracted a little attention. People started walking by and peaking in, so we started to invite them in. We invited in a man we saw working in the field the day before, sat him down and gave him a plate of food and all the cereal he could eat.
Later a very old man with a cane walked in. He told us that his family doesn’t take care of him and he has no money to pay us, but would like some food. We pulled out a chair for him and told him to come and eat. He said that he was 70. I guessed him at about 85 years old, you could tell by his face that he had not had an easy life. He told us about how he did not have a wife or children, so he was living with his sister’s daughter and that they only gave him a little food and don’t help him with other things. He said he would like to go to a nursing home and asked if we could help him. This really touched me. I already love the elderly so I ask that you pray for him and for us that we can find some way to help him get the assistance that he needs.
Additionally, we had made friends with the children that lived in the house next door. They live in a tiny little one room house with their mother. There are 4 children and we think that the mother might be pregnant. We invited them to come and eat with us. The youngest boy even went and put on pants for the occasion. I loved watching them giggle as they ate their chocolate frosted flakes, wondering if they had ever had cereal before, yet instantly took to the custom of fighting over who got to read the back of the cereal box. Later, we took a few pictures of them over to the mother, and she just laughed at how silly her children were, hamming it up for the camera. This is the part of ministry that I love, being able to share in something together. Christ created us to be in fellowship and community with one another and I am so thankful that we got to exemplify that on the little island.
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