Today was a very humbling experience. I had just finished Skyping with my boyfriend, crying, complaining, and telling him about what has been going on. Basically being here and this experience wasn't what I had in mind. A very selfish way of looking at things.
As soon as I went back to the girls I was reminded of why I am here. They just need someone to love them, someone to pay attention to them and someone to care. The next four hours I spent with the girls was amazing. I played ball with them, they taught me how to dance, showed me their version of exercise and painted my nails for me. Just seeing the curiosity in their faces was priceless. They don't see a lot of Caucasian people so they love touching my skin and seeing the flesh turn from pink to white to pink again. They are intrigued by my freckles (which they call pimples) and count them comparing shape and size. They don't understand sunglasses (I told them my light blue eyes can't handle the sun) so they take them and inspect them before handing them back because they think my eyes are in pain. They also come up to me and say, "Yous got the fat", nothing like honest children and their half-broken English. They never cease to amaze me. They are so great at some English and horrible at others. I have now deducted that it is from their way of learning. They learn through memorization not comprehension. They are programmed like little robots, if something is asked in a different way they do not know how to answer. It is probably the most frustrating thing. I know how smart they are and we try to communicate but sometimes words just fail. That is when we sing, dance or play.
Anyway, I am getting away from my point of this post, being humbled. So today was Sunday and the girls have prayed at least three times by 6:00pm. They take me by the hand and lead me upstairs and all sit in a circle. In my head I am thinking, "hmm we can't be praying again, what are we going to do?" Well, it was more praying. Sidenote: Yesterday I sat in on my first Rosary ceremony and I found that since I didn't understand the words, the beat and rhythm spoke to me and I was very comforted by the chanting. So today wasn't any different. I was comforted by the rhythm and found myself trying to understand what they were saying. So after the prayer I asked one of the girls what a certain section meant. She didn't understand me and she just said, "prayer". I said, "for what?" To that she responded with what humbled me most, "Molly Auntie, we pray for people who don't have, don't have house, don't have food, don't have family. We pray for them and that God blesses them." It pulled at all my heartstrings and really made me thankful. If these girls who don't have families, don't have a home of their own and all of their belongings can fit into a small book bag are praying for other, why was I upset and complaining about me not being about to help. I was/am very selfish and this, being here, no matter how different than I thought it was going to be, is enough. These girls don't want for anything, they have food to eat, a bed to sleep in, a God to worship, and Sisters that love them. I should be just, if not more, grateful.
This only on day four.
