Hat-tip to Austin Kleon for the above snapshot of his journal entry: “The true gift of children is they destroy what you think you know and provide the opportunity for healthy not-knowing and growth.”
Children aren’t necessary for achieving healthy not-knowing and growth, but they’re a hell of a good catalyst.
See also: “The rules are there ain’t no rules.” and Baby Comello
CUTE KIDS, CLOTHES, AND CANCIONES
Hola, readers! We’ve had a pretty cool last few days.
Yesterday we had lunch with Juan Carlos’ family after church. His brother, Alejandro, is the lead singer of the Guatemalan Christian band Vertical. Apparently they’re the Guatemalan equivalent of the Newsboys or something like that. We ate Domino’s pizza and ice cream. Ah, fatty foods.
After lunch we went down to Chiquimullia and stayed with our friends Denis and Alvira overnight. They run a camp-like ministry for the kids in that area, so today we visited a village and did a program for them. The theme that Denis and Alvira are doing now is obedience, so Elise and I helped them in different skits and games and songs that involved that theme. We got pictures but I can’t put them up now. Don’t worry, though, they’re full of hilarity.
While we did the presentation, mom and Jeanette talked to the village midwives. You could hardly call them midwives officially, though, because the only reason they had that title was because they had had children before and would theoretically know something about the birthing process. It was dismaying, then, for mom to find out how much they didn’t know. Apparently lots of moms feed their newborn babies coffee, olive oil, honey, and soda among other things. It’s why malnutrition is so widespread down here.
Regardless, the midwives were really curious and asked a lot of questions. Meanwhile, Elise and I along with Denis and Alvira handed out clothes, shoes, and toys to the kids. It was humbling to see barefooted kids receive what may have been their first pair of shoes. One little boy–no more than 2–was waiting silently as the other kids scrambled for toys. He just looked up blankfaced at Elise, but when she gave him a little beanie baby, he smiled and started to show off his toy to others, including mom.
We’ll be seeing lots more situations like that because Elise and I are staying with Denis and Alvira for two weeks sometime this summer. Which will be interesting because they speak zero English. Talk about immersion. They have a really cool house, though, which you’ll see once we can upload pictures again.
Until then, ¡hasta luego!
Next time: meeting the famous Hector, and doing some good old fashioned labor.