Volunteering and traveling in Argentina to proclaim God's great love, and hopefully not getting sick along the way.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

When you lay down the law

..sometimes, some really great things happen.

While some wanted to play soccer again, I looked up at the sky and saw some ominous clouds. And even though it didn't end up raining, I came prepared with two styrofoam cups, two pieces of cardboard squares, two sticks of about 5 inches in length, a ping pong ball and some tape.

Javi looked at me with skepticism. But we mounted our bikes (Rosita!!!) and took off. We arrived to a full house: the new Rodrigo*, Nico, Nahuel, Sergio, Matias, Fabrizio and Mariano. However, menos mal, digamos, Fabri and Mariano stayed in the back to play cards with Claudio. Bueno, the rest of us put together our own miniature basketball court on a table and played two v. two.

I let the kids make their own goal. I gave them the basic idea, but wanted them to problem solve on their own and discover their own capabilities. As well as waste some time. Then I told them that there are some important rules, and that if they broke them there were one of two results: a loss of a turn the disarming of all of our precious work because we would be done for the day.

Wow! They loved it! And while only four could play at a time, they paid special attention to everyone that was playing. A first. Matias was, well, the normal difficult Matias that he is, but the only one who really did any wrong. Then there was Nahuel who stole my heart again by cheering for everyone, and picking me to be on his team. He even wanted me to sit with him while we waited our turn again. In general, everyone was shouting in excitement, "So close!!!", "GOAL!!", etc. etc.

Sergio, I must say, is also a personal favorite. I know, it's a dangerous rode to love them too much when I have no idea how long they are staying, nor will I be here forever, but I think it's worth the risk. There's probably some poetic saying about that somewhere ;). Any way, I say this about Sergio because I had made a game for him not too long ago, and he made a point to say that he really enjoyed it. I had missed his birthday last week, so I told him I was sorry, but he gave me a huge hug and promised it was okay. Que tierno!

On another note, I feel like I'm thinking about these stories in Spanish so much, that it affects my English sentence structure. Oh well, asi es la vida a veces. More than anything, I was encouraged by todays' game time with the boys.

As for the girls, yesterday we made wind chimes. I'm wanting to say "from scratch," but that's not the right term. I'll explain later. Chau for now!

*Rodrigo. Some of you may remember Rodrigo dos. As of Monday, he escaped the institute and we still don't know where he is. Please be in prayer for his safety and that he is able to find a place as well as a good family with whom he can stay. Or something. I don't know what to pray in an instance such as this, really.

The new Rodrigo comes with brother Nico and is one of five. All of his brothers and mother came to visit on Tuesday while we played soccer with them. I'm not sure of the whole situation, but I was told they were dropped off last Wednesday at the house and were left confused and crying.

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