I was walking into the Harding house when a little 3-year-old came running up to me. "Teacher, I have a headache. AND I've already drank several cups of water!" I couldn't help but laugh because it was so cute! Even the little ones are learning that most headaches come from dehydration and they need to first drink water before taking medicine!
The weather this week has been a welcome respite after the heat of the previous months. Rainy season is in full swing, and that means a temperature in the 80s. The kids are also enjoying rain puddles, as you can see in the first picture!
Last Thursday, Emilianne and I were taking a break in town when we found one of our former kids! It's always fun to get to see them around town.
Friday was full of cleaning and preparing for Sabbath in a new house. Trying to make it pretty is a challenge, as there is paint peeling off every wall and spiders living in their webs everywhere, but we did our best. Twinkle lights helped a lot! We welcomed Sabbath all together in the Harding house since it was raining. It was the first worship with all the new staff present. Around 80 people were packed into the room! And that was without 20 kids that were coming Sunday. God has blessed us with many new faces.
The older girls in the Harding house have gotten into hairstyling recently, so Sabbath afternoon was filled with new hairstyles. We couldn't decide between oatmeal cookies, biscotti and hot chocolate, or a popcorn bar for supper, so we did all three! It was delicious.
Sunday was fun. Carlo and I tried playing games like telephone with the boys because it was once again raining. Their attention spans were short so we rotated games pretty quickly but they had fun! It cleared up later in the day and they enjoyed playing outside. We decided to make sloppy joes for lunch and they turned out super well! It's always exciting introducing the boys to a new kind of food.
Monday was the first day of school. Everyone gathered on the front lawn of the school for the morning festivities. Afterward, there was a staff meeting for the permanent employees, so Carlo and I were once again with the little boys. As we were listening to music and monitoring 22 little ones as they chased pigs in the front yard (the neighbors' pigs keep coming over and it's quite entertaining), three new little boys shyly walked up to the house. They were skinny, with scraggly hair that showed their undernourishment and lack of parental care. They watched with big nervous eyes as Diego told them all about our house. When Diego finished with a very thorough entrance speech, the middle boy stared at us, then stared at Diego. Again, he stared back at us, then at Diego. Finally he turned to Diego and spoke. "You're parents are SO white!" Diego looked back at us a little confused and I burst out laughing!
Late that evening we found out Josemy, a new student missionary from Southern, and a new Bolivian volunteer would be arriving at 4am. Everyone else was super busy, so I ran around till almost midnight getting bedding and mattresses. Tuesday morning at 3:45, I crawled out of bed and walked across campus to wait for the bus to drop them off. After much confusion, they didn't arrive until 6am. I woke Carlo up and we went to carry their bags to their respective houses. And then it was my day off! My day off switched to Tuesday, so it was a calm day of shopping and resting. Josemy took a nap and then walked all over town with me picking out plants and fabric for curtains for our new house. So happy to have her here!
A dentist traveled here on Wednesday to perform dental exams for as many kids as possible. I worked as her assistant and coordinator for the next three days. In fact, that's where I am now!
The last few days have been filled with monitoring kids at recess, taking care of sick kids (we have a headache/fever bug going around), organizing groceries, and bandaging up some bad wounds. On top of that, we have been preparing campus because Social Services along with the judge visited today! Social Services is scary enough, but the judge! He was here to determine if we were capable of gaining custody of baby Jose and we were all nervous. It was quite nerve-wracking, and to top it off, we are so full of kids that yesterday we had two kids to a bed. We had ordered more, but they hadn't arrived yet. Melissa went to town in search of more last night. Thankfully, she found more, just in the nick of time.
The inspection happened this morning. Things went seamlessly and the judge was happy! We hope to get approval of custody soon.
There were a lot of events this week. A new year of school, a dentist, an inspection, new volunteers... sometimes it's tough to see how it will all work out. This week, I've been listening to the song "I'm So Blessed" by CAIN a lot. The words say:
On my best day, I'm a child of God
On my worst day, I'm a child of God
Oh, every day is a good day
And You're the reason why
I'm so blessed, I'm so blessed
Got this heartbeat in my chest
No, it doesn't matter about the rest
If I got You Lord, I'm so blessed
This week worked out wonderfully! It was a good reminder that we don't need to stress. God has each of us in His hands and will work everything out if we lean on Him.
The best!