September 20

It’s Tarynn’s birthday today! We had to work today, but we got someone to cover us so that we could go to lunch and have some baleadas!! Woohoo! And after baleadas, we had some ice cream… woohoo again! After lunch we had to come back to supervise the kids at the pool. Yes, they have a pool… but it’s green… more like an algae pool than a swimming pool. It’s not always like this, but today, it was disgusting. The kids still wanted to swim and so Txus said to let them. They kept asking us why we weren’t swimming with them and I kept reminding them that the pool was green. These kids don’t care one bit about dirt... but I’m sure kids all around the world are like that. While we were watching the kids, some of the other ones were catching horses and riding them. If that sounds crazy to you, it’s probably because it is. I figure that the horses don’t have enough energy to really resist… most of the horses you’ll see are just skin and bones.

Ingrid came up to us while we were making sure the kids weren’t killing each other. She asked us if we wanted to go to the river. Of course, we agreed. After getting the kids out of the pool, we all started walking. It was maybe a forty five minute walk… especially longer with the kids. The walk was absolutely beautiful. There were trees surrounding the path and green everywhere. We had a few problems on the way, but we got over them. The first problem we encountered were the bulls. There were around 15 kids that went with us and so when the bulls came near us on the path, they were freaking out. One of the older girls would not keep walking. She turned around and headed back so Tarynn had to go get her. Some of the younger ones started to cry and I had some kids behind me and we just waited until they passed. Our next little problem was Margori. She had to use the bathroom. One of the boys was being a big jerk and wouldn’t leave so that she could do her business. I had to drag him some of the way and then pretend to race him the rest of it so that he started to run. If you get grossed out easily, you may want to skip over this next part. Tarynn told me that she didn’t just need to go to the bathroom. She really needed to go. She went “number two” and then went on and grabbed a leaf to finish off the job. She even got some on her shoes… it was a mess. There’s nothing like the great outdoors, hu?

The next problem we came to was the soccer game. There was a random field on the way to the river and there was a soccer game going on. The boys all wanted to stay. I would’ve said no, but Ingrid said it was okay. She had been a volunteer the year before and so she knows a lot more than I do, so I trust her. Some of the girls wanted to stay, but we definitely said no to that. So we… actually… Ingrid had to argue with the kids. It took a while, but finally we kept going. The river was pretty dirty, but it was still beautiful. There were mountains around us and large rocks that we had to jump across to get the river. I’m terrible with words so I can’t explain it... but it was beautiful.

The kids didn’t want to leave, but because we took so long getting there, we had to leave earlier. We had to get back before dark and before dinner. This is when the last problem happened. Some kids were running ahead of us and they jumped onto the back of the truck. I was further behind so I didn’t know what was happening. I saw Ingrid yelling at them and the truck went off with some of the kids in the back. When I caught up to her, she said that she told them to get off because she didn’t know who these people were, but the kids just laughed and went anyway. They waved at her as the car drove away. Ingrid was really mad when they left. We had no choice but to keep going. On the way, we saw some of the kids sitting on the side of the path. Ingrid yelled at them some more in Spanish. I love these kids, but it’s really hard to be patient when they don’t listen. It’s hard to get them to start doing things or to stop doing things. It’s a huge battle especially when you don’t speak Spanish. Some of them have even made Tarynn and I cry, but we know that they’ve been through a lot and they need our love.

Ingrid and I were talking on the way back after we found all the kids. She talked about how experiences like this give her a little glimpse of what God has to go through when he deals with us. He loves us so much and we disobey all the time even when all he wants is the best for us and for us to be safe. She said that she can’t be mad at them for very long because even though it hurts her when they don’t listen, she does the same thing to God. It’s so true. I’m sure parents feel this all the time when their kids don’t obey or when they do things that will hurt themselves. Thing is, God feels this pain all the time. And it’s not just for one child, it’s for countless people. He has a deep deep deeeeeep love for every human being... so imagine what He has to go through when so many people hurt him at once. I can’t even comprehend it. Sometimes I wonder why God keeps on loving us, but I can’t forget that He has called us His children. I think He gave people that parent-child bond to show us a little bit of what God goes through… because although it brings a whole lot of pain, the love between parent and a child also brings indescribable happiness too.