grasshopper

It's amazing how things can change so quickly. One minute I was daydreaming, thinking about how everything that had happened lately was so extremely ordinary, and the next minute I was wishing that I had never thought such a thing. This past Friday most of the SM's went to the beach with the volunteer group that was here from Nebraska. About half-way through our time there, I was lying on my towel, listening to Jack Johnson and feeling beachy, when I heard a bunch of commotion. I sat up and looked into the water. Through my headphones I could hear some girls near me saying something like, "...there were three, but now I only see two." I searched the ocean, seeking the subject of their conversation, and when I saw only a small boat a little ways off shore, I assumed that they were talking about the persons in that dinghy. But soon, I heard someone say, "Get Brittany!" The concern in their voice made me throw off my headphones and run for the water. Three SM's had been swept past the breakers in a rip-tide and only two had returned. I swam out into the ocean, knowing there was nothing I could do to help, even though I was the only certified lifeguard present. I went to the small group of people that Christina had been hanging out with, and asked a few questions. I was afraid that she had drowned or was trapped beneath the water in some way, but fortunately, Christina's fellow body-surfers hadn't seen her submerge. But then again, they hadn't seen her for quite some time, and though she had been above water the last time they saw her, there wasn't any guarantee that that was still the case. Because I had been on the beach and had seen a boat off-shore, I wasn't terribly worried that she might get swept all the way to China, but I was worried about her endurance swimming in the ocean. I stayed on the shore side of the breakers, worried that I would get swept out as well in my attempt to save her. For one thing, I didn't know for sure that she actually needed my help, and for another thing, I had nothing in the way of a buoyant life-saving aid. If she had drowned and needed my help, chances were slim that I would be able to find her, pull her to the surface, AND tow her to shore through the waves without any sort of help in the buoyancy department. So I stayed, and we waited, hoping to catch any glimpse of her that we could. Finally, we saw her: a head of wet hair and a white face, swimming slowly toward us as the waves passed her by. Her face betrayed exhaustion and mirrored the relief that we all felt. She made it safely to shore and we crowded around her, thanking God in prayer as she cried.
Days passed and the incident was forgotten, at least by me. That was when I wished for something exciting to happen. (This is where a little voice like that of Adventures in Odyssey's Mrs. Barclay was supposed to say, "Be careful what you wish for, it might come true." But alas, the wish was not clearly verbalized in my head, so the warning of Mrs. Barclay was not fully realized either.) My answer came in the form of a tragedy. After lunch on Tuesday, I opened my bedroom door to a sobbing Mami Yani. Papi Chepe's father had just died and the family was leaving immediately to go to the funeral. There were no extra house parents available to fill in, so Alexis and I instantly became mothers, with the help of the substitute Tia and an older girl from another house. To make a long, and very detailed story short, we survived. Actually, in looking back, we did pretty well. The house was in total disarray because the girls and boys had been in the process of switching rooms when Mami Yani left, and the next morning we discovered that there was only one shower curtain for the boys' bathroom. Through some form of logic that I may never understand, Moises refused to use the curtain-less shower because other people could see him, even though he was already running around the house buck-naked. Go figure. But anyway, on the whole, meals were relatively tranquil, with the major difficulty being the clean-up. Tia Lydia returned from her day off on Wednesday and helped with the parenting more, though seemingly against her will. She seemed unconcerned at the lack of house parents and told Alexis that she hoped to go to the funeral that day. Things continued at a slightly more-chaotic pace with Tia Lydia as the mother, and I was relieved when Mami and Papi returned unexpectedly this evening. I am so happy.
Also, to add a little zip to my life, I received my Christmas box from Walla Walla. I hate waiting, and since I'll be home a few days after Christmas anyway, I figured, "Why clump all the good stuff together? Let's spread the joy and open it now!" So I did, and I was definitely impressed. My favorite thing was a book containing notes from many of my friends with pictures to go along with their notes. I was so touched by all the nice things they had to say, but the note that really stuck out and taught me something was that of Katie Savage. In it, she reminded me of the Virtues of Life that I had made up and taught to her in high school: Be observant, don't carry excess baggage, and take your time. The virtues mirror the things that most other people had been telling me, instructing me to enjoy every minute of this once-in-a-lifetime experience, but when I read them this time, my own words came back to haunt me and caused the lesson to really hit home: This isn't just something to survive. I shouldn't just wait my life away, looking forward to the next big thing but ignoring the present. I need to live now and take advantage of the moments I'm given. Savor it. Soak it up. And that's hard to do sometimes. But hopefully, it will get easier with practice.
In other news, I am now lice-free. Yay.