"It was only matter of time until one of us got a bad haircut," said Aidan after seeing my hair...
I mean, it is pretty funny when I think about how nerve wracking it is to get a haircut in the States never mind when you're communicating in a second language, and for the record my hair isn't that bad just a little shorter than I would have liked, and for 2 dollars I'll take it!
Other then my haircut experience, it has been pretty quiet in the house since a lot of the volunteers went to help the Pan de Vida retreat with the Friars in Nicaragua. In the meantime we had been given a task list, and mine had a lot to do with planning the retreat for the kids in our Scholarship program which I'm really excited about.
In the middle of the planning and meetings, a little boy named Cristian died in our neighborhood. I know that Juliette probably already talked about it but it I'll repeat a little bit. He was a sweet little boy with Down Syndrome who's older sister Milagro is in our scholarship program. I went to her house last week to visit her and Cristian was there, running around, playing and hiding from me and I kept calling him guapo (handsome) as he became increasingly embarrassed. When the house was called I kept hoping that it wasn't the same Cristian. We went to buy food for the family, a shopping list that I feel like we know a little too well now and went to the house and prayed with the family but the person I really wanted to check on was Milagro and she wasn't there. Later we walked over again with Brother Dismus and Milagro was there and I hugged her and she wouldn't let go. Her eyes were swollen, and I literally couldn't imagine being at my brother's wake for 12 hours. At every death, the neighborhood literally storms heaven with prayers and people are in the house all day but it's such a long day for the family. I told her that the day was almost over and that I'm here for her. I just wanted to be with her all night. They had taken Cristian to the hospital the day before to be treated for Dengue Fever and that night he passed away. It is really obvious here how fast life changes and the only consolation I had was knowing that Cristian is no where other then heaven. Milagro didn't come today to our weekly meeting for the volunteer hours for Becas, I didn't expect her to be, but please pray for her family!
Today with the kids in Becas we tried to go to Martita's house to clean to complete their volunteer hours, but she was in a bad mood, wouldn't let us in and called us ugly Indians. I don't know what that means, but there are pictures of Martita on my facebook and a video, when she is sweet she's really sweet but when she's in a bad mood it's ugly. So instead we went further into the neighborhood to this old man's house that I never visited before. He lives by himself, his wife passed away from AIDS, and the poor thing doesn't know how to take care of himself. It was in his house that I became completely in awe of Yadira how she did so much with so little in this man's house. I was laughing so hard because she was asking him questions like: "Why are you cooking in the room you sleep?! There are more rooms," or "Why don't you have any food?" and was really taking the time to try and teach him. Giggly I told her I liked the way she corrected him and she simply said "It's not right." She sent one of the kids to buy a little food and quickly constructed a little stove out of an old street sign and cinder blocks and started a fire to start cooking with. Seeing all the kids in his house trying to help him the old man started to try and weed his yard. He said to me proudly it's "limpita" now, or a little clean, and then Yadira told him again to wash his hands before he eats. After he washed his hands again he started to weed again and Yadira yelled "Why are you touching the dirt again? Wash your hands!" The man laughed at himself, because you could tell from the way Yadira was talking to him that it was out of love.
I look up to her so much...
Ok I have rambled enough,
Con Amor...
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