this was an excellent last two days of the week.
let me tell you why.
1. students.
not my own. specifically Miss Christy Elmer's and Miss Rachel Cunningham's.
why, you may ask?
because they are my soccer buddies. I can definitely count on one "vas a jugar?" (are you going to play?) in the morning before everyone has to line up. Makes me feel special and like I'm making maybe a difference in the life of someone...just loving them is what I love. Now I'm not saying that I would enjoy teaching them, but I definitely love being able to play with them and let them just jump and hang all over me. It's seriously awesome.
ESTHEISLY:
(i may be spelling her name wrong...and if I am, i'm sorry!)
Let me tell you a story about one very special girl. Her name is Estheisly (pronounced E(short e)-stacey) Every morning, break time, lunch time, and end of the day, I have the privilege of spending time with this little girl.
How I messed up…
Today, like every other lunch recess time, Estheisly was on my back. I’m her caballo (horse). Many of the other students are super jealous that she is always on my back, but generally I just let them be jealous and let her be mine solely.
I made the mistake of trying to pick up other students and Estheisly had to get down off my back because I literally had 7 or 8 students trying to jump on me and trying to hang on. She ran away. I couldn’t find her, until I saw her sitting away facing me.
Although I was already 5 minutes late taking my kids inside, I went over to her because I wanted her to know that I still loved her and she still had a special place in my heart.
When I went over to her, she ran away from me. as I continued to follow her, she kept running. I kept following her until I just caught her. As I held her, she just started crying, crying, crying. She wouldn’t look at me, but just had her head on my shoulder and was crying. She tried to say something, but she was facing away from me and speaking in Spanish…a bad combination. I just told her that I loved her…and I kept asking what was wrong. ((By this time, my whole class was standing in line ready to go inside for like 5 minutes…)) I decided to take her into Christy’s room because I figured Christy knows Spanish better than I and can actually see her face, so maybe she can help me out. I carried her in there, and told Christy “Tengo una amiga conmigo.” (I have a little friend with me) and Christy obviously could tell that she was crying and asked Estheisly what was wrong…turns out she is missing her mom (I think, honestly, craving attention, that I didn’t fulfill in her today…made me feel kinda like a failure.) because both of her parents live in the United States.
What a life. Growing up without your two parents. BREAKS my heart. Seriously. I want so badly to be able to share Christ’s love with her. Although her father and mother aren’t there for her, God is still there with her.
Geez. Kinda killed me for the rest of the day. I kept thinking about this little girl who is growing up without the present love of her mother and father.
Fast forward to the end of the day:
As I was leaving, I wanted to make sure I saw Estheisy and was able to talk to her before she left for the weekend. I went and found her, and she immediately wanted me to pick her up, but since she was wearing her backpack on her front, that made it difficult. So I told her that we should go sit down on the bench and talk. I asked her if the rest of her day was okay and if she was going to have a good weekend. She said she had a good day. Then she crawled on my lap. I just sat and hugged her for a few minutes. Then her ride came to pick her up for the weekend. And then you know what happened next?
She gave me a kiss on the cheek.
I pooled. Seriously, I loved it so much…I’m so thankful that God brought this one special girl who trusts me and who I can love and share the Lord’s love with. I feel like if this is my one reason for being here, so I can love this beautiful little girl, then that’s why I’m here. and I am totally content with that.
Estheisly (with chocolate popsicle all over her face) and me
GEORGE WASHINGTON:
I was sitting with Miss Elmer's class during their break time. One of her students, Alexander, eats these long thin crackers with spreadable white cheese. He dipped his long cracker into the cheese and came out with a hunk on it and said, “George Washington!”
At first, I was really confused, and then I started LAUGHING so hard. Because the cheese had been white and there was a big glop on the end, it looked like George Washington’s powdered wig. Oh my.
I thought it was so funny…then he bit it off and did it again. “child of George Washington!” HAHA.
Then he bit it off and one more time “baby of George Washington!”
Then he ate the whole thing: “George Washington dead!”
I was basically rolling on the floor by this point.
2. staff.
not them all. just specific ones. haha just kidding. but seriously.
Thursday I was having a fairly bad day…my first bad day here at JCS. I was not doing well, and I just seriously needed some reassurance that I’m not a complete idiot for being here and that I really do have some sort of reason for being here. I met with Rachel during my lunch time, so I didn’t have time to play soccer with my amigos, which kind of made me feel bad because I really just wanted to play with them. I just needed some self-esteem boosting because I was feeling like a failure of a teacher, friend, and Christian. Anyways, I was just being irrational about it all, obviously, because I’m not failing…maybe mediocre, but definitely not failing. Anyways, regardless, I was just at my wit’s end. I have no alone space here and I have nowhere to go to just be alone without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. So I begged…okay, maybe a strong word…the “other girls” to let me come over and sit on their back porch and be alone for a little while. As much as I hate being annoying and bothersome, I too often find myself calling over there for help. I’m going to try and stop, but Thursday was an emergency. haha not really, but I just needed to be alone. As I was just sitting on their back porch, reading my Bible, journaling, listening to music, and getting eaten alive, I was interrupted. At first I was semi-annoyed, but Rachel offered to bring me a plate of dinner out. When she came back, there was soup, fruit, and bread…complete with candle (because it was dark…). If I may steal a quote from the Office, her kindness healed me. I felt so good. Then when I got home, (Christy had given me back my flash drive that she had borrowed to get pictures off of it) I opened it and saw a file named “rainbow happiness.” I was curious. I opened it and it had a note along with this picture:
I just about died laughing. Seriously, I had tears streaming. It was a good evening: solid time with God, solid encouragement.
FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK:
This week I was over at the girls’ house (geez. I spend way too much time there!) because we were talking about my junky lesson plans and how to improve them. I got invited over for dinner before getting my self-esteem bashed about how bad of a teacher I am right now. Dramatic. Totally joking. Anyways (geez, I’m about as ADD in real life as I am in my story telling) as we were sitting at dinner, somehow we got on the topic of the awkward turtle. YES. We did. For those of you who are unaware of what exactly the awkward turtle (or turkey. or awkward rock with arm jiggle.) is, it is a signal that you can use when you are feeling awkward. Rachel had never heard of the awkward turtle, so we were attempting to explain what exactly the awkward turtle is and how to do it, Rachel was unable to figure out how exactly to do it. Instead of keeping all of her fingers except her thumbs still, she was moving all 10 of her fingers. It was HILARIOUS. So we dubbed it the “awkward sea anemone.” I was also taught the “awkward giraffe.” Wow. Solid dinner conversation, eh?
Anyways, maybe it was a “you have to be there” moment, but man. whenever I think about it, I still crack a smile.
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