Sonrisas y Sol

“No se vaya!” (“Don’t go!”) Every girl — from the ones I’ve known the longest to the ones who just arrived — will remember at random times that I’m leaving. That I have four weeks left. And they give long hugs and pitiful pleas for me to stay. “Why do you have to leave?” “Will you come back?” “What are you going to do for the rest of your life?” Soledad walks into my room as Maribel talks with me in my hammock. Maribel lays down in my lap for me to play with her hair and Sole pages through my journal, asking about it. “¿Cuando se vaya?” (“When do you leave?”) “Seis de Mayo” (“May 6”). A long silence follows. Then Sole counts, “Un, dos, tres, cuarto, cinco semanas falta.” (“Five weeks left.”) “Falta solo un poquitito,” Marianely comes up to where I’m cooking and says in her too-soft-to-normally-hear voice. “Till when?” I ask. “Till you leave.” Shoot. I wasn’t convinced this chica  actually felt anything for me. But here she is thinking about me leaving. I flip an omelette and look u...

Sometimes it's hard To find a new metaphor To say the same old cliché 'Cause whatever I'm saying Has been said before And it's hard I could call it a battle I could call it a march I could call it a road long and cold There's a light in the distance And He's waiting there for me But it's still hard Jesus, He told us That it wouldn't be easy And boy, don't I know that it's true 'Cause easy was raising a man from the dead But being humble seems harder to do And it's hard To get out of this mess And it's hard To drop my pride and confess Though I know all the lingo and all the cliches It means nothing if He's not in control Jesus came down to save me But what does that mean Does my life really show that I know? If it don't change my behavior Then it don't change a thing And it's hard 'Cause when I open my eyes And see my own helplessness It makes all the difference, you see ' Cause the lingo is lost in the light o...

“Bingo!”  The SM group chat floods with the word bingo  everyday.  And I love it! Elizabeth, as afore mentioned, had the bingo brainchild. And the game continues. The daily rules of our blackout bingo are 1) see every SM; 2) exchange at least three words each; 3) text “bingo” to the group-chat. There are two ways to win in the end: 1) having the most times bingo-ing first; 2) having the most bingos in total.  While life here may not have a lot of seeing the other SMs long enough to converse, I love peeping at their lives in our group-chat which is beautifully full of daily snapshots. And in consideration of the bingo strategy, I’ve also been thinking about some of the firsts and mosts we’ve experienced lately.  Bingo First Día del Padre on March 19 was the first time I’ve had to speak in celebration of fathers to a group of kids who A) don’t have fathers; B) had abusive fathers; C) have fathers who aren’t capable of caring for them. What do you do with that?? ...