The sweat. The mosquitoes. The sun. The mangos. The dust. The ocean. It's great to be back. I think I was honestly a little excited when I arrived in La Quinta, where I'm staying with a missionary family, the Pirkles, and sweat started beading on my forehead. Such a familiar feeling.
It almost seems like I was only gone for a few weeks. The night I arrived, I sat on the Pirkles' couch with the ceiling fan spinning lazily overhead and some of my favorite people around me, and I just felt so relaxed and at home. I had been completely prepared to find everything changed and foreign since I know a lot happens in a year here, but it doesn't really feel like much has.
Like I said, the Pirkles generously invited me to stay with them for the six weeks I'll be here. Dr. Vance is an OB-GYN at the hospital and Miss Susan works as a hospital administrator. They have four kids living here (and then one away at college): Rebekah, Sarah, Caleb, and Phillip. They're crazy Georgia Bulldogs fans and beast at barbecue and, in general, wonderful people, and I'm glad to have a family to live with. I don't mind living by myself, but it's nice to have people to have dinner with and sit around in the evenings with and that sort of thing.
So far, my weekly schedule looks like this: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'll be working at the Children's Center (basically a foster home), Tuesdays I'll go to La Ceiba to visit the people in Los Laureles (the community living in the city dump), and Wednesdays I'll go out to Rio Esteban to teach English at the bilingual school I was working at before.
I've worked two days at the Children's Center. Iain and Liz, the Scottish couple who run the home, want me to work with the kids who go to the public school in Balfate to assess where they're at in their grade level, what areas they're struggling, and how we can help them improve (the schools don't provide the parents with much feedback on their kids' progress, other than that they're passing or failing). It's been a lot of fun working with the kids. One-on-one is much closer to my alley than managing an entire classroom.
Which is why I'm also enjoying going out to W-Ragar Bilingual School and teaching English. I was a little worried that I might have to substitute teach or something, but, so far, I have only been taking several kids at a time during class periods and working with them. Most of the students are really good and attentive. It's a lot of fun.
I wasn't able to go to the Dump last Tuesday, so I went Saturday instead. Lisa brought three of the boys from Los Laureles who are living with her indefinitely for different reasons, and we ran errands in town and visited the Dump.
Lisa kept asking the boys to keep their eyes open for José, a twelve-year-old boy who lived with her for a year and recently ran back to La Ceiba because of a crack addiction. He had stayed with her for so long, and loved reading the Bible and going to church. He went home to his family for a while, apparently, but he never stays there more than a few days because his step dad is abusive. Now he's back out on the streets with his older brother. We did see them walking along the road, and Lisa said they were probably headed for a stoplight to beg. It made me want to cry. Lisa said she sometimes wonders how many times your heart can be completely crushed before you can't take it anymore; how can you just keep loving? She knows better than a lot of people the answer to that question. In John 14:26-27, Jesus told his disciples, "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Then, just a little bit later at the end of chapter 16 he says, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." That's how. It takes a lot of strength and love to keep pouring your heart out without receiving much in return, but that's what Jesus did for us and what he's called and equipped us to do. He already overcame the world. He gave us his peace. It's really amazing to me. If you remember, please be praying for this little boy, that he wouldn't be able to forget about Lisa and what he was learning about God.
If I get my thoughts a little more collected, I'll write later.
