one-hundred

As of today, I have 100 days left in El Salvador. Such a number causes me to stop and think--it's small enough to give me pause, signalling the beginning of the end, yet large enough to give me time for things I have kept putting off. I'm looking eagerly toward my trip home, yet striving to make every day here count, struggling with how that translates into practical living. The first strain of the melancholy tugged at me today as I sat in the Kindergarten room and the words of a song by Something Corporate came to mind: "Soon I'll be leaving you, but you won't be leaving me." In seeing the things I see now and in doing the things I do, I know that in the future I'll look back and remember it all, wondering where the time went and what each of the kids ended up doing with their lives.

This past week, my roommate's fiancé came for a visit and I ended up filling in for her, looking after the kids in Reception House, for four days. It was quite the experience. The first day was a breeze, and I enjoyed playing with the 3-6 year-olds on the playground. A few tears were shed over a scrape or two, but none of them were serious injuries and they stopped crying after a few seconds of special attention and comforting. The second day was kinda bad, but only because the older girls that came to play with the kids were a bit annoying. The third day was the worst. The parents were on their afternoon off and the regular Tia wasn't anywhere in sight, so the substitute Tia, Christina (another SM), and I had to chase the kids down and drag them to their rooms for nap time. I took charge over the five girls as Christina stood at the end of the hall to keep watch over the boys and catch any run-aways. The girls staged a mass rebellion, running around in their underwear (or less), trying to take a shower when they weren't supposed to as the little boys tried to watch. Two of the boys managed to get into the girls' room and hide under the beds as the girls were supposed to be getting dressed. One girl, Bea, threw shoes at me and later slapped me in the mouth. She received some extra discipline and by 2:30, all of the girls were in their beds except for Bea. She didn't get into her bed until 3:10 or 3:20, when all of the other girls were asleep. But as I was disciplining Bea shortly before she went to bed, I suddenly realized that I wasn't tired. I wasn't emotionally drained like I have been in the past while dealing with rebellious children. I was proud of myself and happy that I'd found what I considered to be the mind-set of a parent. The fourth day in Reception was somewhere in the middle--not all peachy, but a far cry from the day before. That day I was also blessed with a visit from Tommy Stuart and his wife, Jennifer, as I was finishing up my time at Reception. As some of you may know, Tommy was a Student Missionary here a few years back. It was nice to talk to him about his experiences, even if it was only for about 12 minutes. Too soon I had to leave to go to a meeting, but the Stuarts' visit definitely made my day.