August 13th, 2011 - I LOVE YOU

I LOVE YOU.  Three simple words that to many people are “just words”, but with the children down
here mean SO much more.  Three words that a husband and wife may say in passing each other in the house or to end a conversation on the phone, or a child may say when they want to prolong going to bed, that many times is just a common phrase.  They’re 3 words that get shared verbally, yet many times do not truly come from the heart. Doris says these words to me at least once a day and they generally either accompany (or are followed by) one of the strongest hugs I’ve gotten in a long time. Yesterday I had to remind her of my weak stomach, to which she was very respective. 

 

Although Blanca doesn’t say it as often as Doris, she constantly looks for me…to take my hand wherever she goes (generally in between the little girls’ house & their dining hall).  She’s always giving me hugs…perhaps not as “strong” as those from Doris, but they last a long time – as if she just wants to curl up in my arms forever.  I can’t imagine being in a better, more loving place right now.

My first stop this morning was to the kitchen (there was no circle this morning).  The very first thing I saw was a tarantula.  Although it had recently died, it’s the first WHOLE one that I’ve seen in the 4 years I’ve been here…since generally the ants and other bugs come and carry pieces of it away.  It was pretty large, and would’ve scared the daylights out of me if I’d have found it in our house!  There was great comfort in knowing that it was dead and I wouldn’t have to worry about it coming over by me or bothering me while I had to do dishes.

When I headed over to the clinic to take over the morning shift (Jacki had spent the night), Gerson and Karelia decided to send the 2 boys home.  Better yet, no new kids came in – which meant I could get back to the house to help with painting.  Karelia also brought some girls over to fully clean the clinic so that I could get back to those other chores.  I deeply appreciated this.

I spent the rest of the morning painting before heading back for lunch to do dishes.  I can’t really
remember how it started (I would probably blame Doris), but there ended up being a water fight in the kitchen.  Doris and I got soaked – but it was fun!

 

The afternoon was spent painting some more (I cannot believe how long it takes to paint a single room!), and then after supper I headed to the medium girls’ house to help Julie and Jacki say their goodbyes.  They threw a little party for the girls and because their Spanish is limited, Julie asked that I be there for translation into Spanish.  She played a few games to start and then got into some bible versus that she’d like the girls to focus on as she leaves.  After the bible study, I headed back to the house to paint some more while Julie and Jacki gave out cookies and gifts.  Julie and I are different in our ways – she needs long conversations and to show affection when saying goodbye, whereas I would just rather slip away unnoticed.  But we got along well as roommates for this week and a half.

 

The AWESOME news is that 2 of the bedrooms in the house are done!  They have been painted and cleaned and are set-up and ready to go.  Tomorrow Daysha and I will be moving into these two rooms to free up the other bedrooms.  The 3^rd bedroom we had started is mostly done, but needs a 2^nd coat and touch-ups, which hopefully we can get finished up in the next couple of days.  I’d like to have all the bedrooms done before I leave.  If I think of it, I’ll take a picture of the bedroom I’ll be staying in before moving my stuff into there.  Although to most Americans it probably won’t look like anything spectacular, Daysha and I celebrated last night about having accomplished the painting of these two rooms and WE think they look great!!!