MY BUTT & DRAMA

My butt hurts. We don’t sit on anything cushiony. Just plastic or wood chairs. Wood floor. The earth, which is sometimes prickly.

And I’m tempted to cut my hair. Or have one of the girls cut my hair.

I witnessed my first sight of drama tonight. Sunaree (pre-teen girl who is always poking my sides and is usually smiling & giggling) was sullen & quiet at dinner. I sat next to her, and she kept saying she was okay. But she showed up to worship with tears in her eyes. I know some of them are little kids & will bounce right back, but I’m sure it’s hard growing up away from home. Sunaree’s the same girl who saw that I got spiky things all over my pants from working in the field. So she made me take off my shoes & put my legs across her lap so she could pick off each thorn one by one. Her gesture totally shows that her heart’s got gold in it.

And Somsi. She asked if I wanted to try her food last night (the kids and staff eat at different times…we usually serve the kids, then go somewhere else to eat when they’re done), and I teasingly put my mouth right up next to her spoon. She then put some sauce in it & shoved it in my mouth. It looked like soy sauce. It wasn’t. My mouth was on FIRE. She felt so bad about it & gave me heaps and heaps of rice to cool it down. Haha. But tonight, there was a small misunderstanding between her & another girl. So Somsi also came to worship with tears in her eyes.

I want so badly to fix their sadness & to tell them that life is too short to be upset about the little things. But right now, Tete’s talking to the kids about loving each other. The newest group of kids came here to the center about a month ago (I would’ve never known!), and there are many more on the waitlist to be sponsored (I think it’s $20/month). So the group dynamics are always changing. It’s so cool how Tete’s talking about all this now because it’s like an answered prayer. :)