Moments with the Children

June 12, 2010

Here I sit half watching the USA vs. England soccer game, half chatting with Lara, my roommate, and trying to write a blog entry. Multi-tasking would sum up the moment. I just got back from a workshop at church about the different learning styles. All of the volunteers with the children’s Sunday School were supposed to attend. It was a good workshop but because of a long couple of weeks at work, I was incredibly tired. Thankfully I managed to stay awake and did learn a few things.

This past week at La Casa was a tough one in many ways. On Monday we learned that the mother of three of the children was moving in with other family members because she is in her last days of a battle with cancer. In reality she has not fought it much, and so she is going quickly. Several of the staff took the children to visit their mother the next day for what could be there last visit. They shared the message of Christ with her again but she did not want to have anything to do with Him. As of now the plan is to do another visit on Monday (and I think I will go along) so that the children have as much time with their mother as possible. For children (and in adults), coping with loss is difficult and the pain of these last days has been evident in their behavior.

I had several opportunities this week to spend extra time with the girls’ home. On Thursday I took some of the younger girls to a nearby supermarket to look for a cleaning supply. We made it a bit of a treasure hunt so they had fun in spite of it being a rather mundane task – at least for me (but then I am leave the walls of my apartment all the time and have the freedom to go where I want). Friday afternoon I baked cookies with the 12-14 year olds. I am also dedicating more time to one of the girls in particular – Elba. I have been working with her in reading comprehension for the last month and now I will begin some tutoring in English as well.

One of the things that encouraged me most this week was a conversation I had with two of the older boys, Alejandro and Salvador. They were talking about their dreams with schooling after graduating from high school. Alejandro, who still has a year and a half left, wants to become a chef and he said that he would like to have a restaurant here in San Salvador. He would then bring meals to the children’s home every Friday as a small way to give back to the ministry for all that he has received. How encouraging it was to see his heart and attitude!