It's the little things that mean the most

Another week down!
This week flew by and I'm glad it's over. The schools are all slowly improving. We introduced the strike and reward programs this week but when you are working with three year olds that don't speak English it's pretty hard to get them to understand strikes. We are hoping some of them learned something.

The last few days have been very eye opening to me. On Thursday I was walking down the street with my Polaroid camera. I took a few pictures of me with the kids or just the kids. Next thing I knew people were standing around me asking if they could have a picture of themselves. Oh the joy it brings to just give away a simple photo. It's the little things that mean the most.  These people may have nothing but they are some of happiest people in the world. Amarilis said, "When you have nothing there is nothing to worry about. The more you have the more you worry".  That statement has been proven to be true so many times. We don't need riches or worldly possessions to be happy. We need to be grateful for the little things and find joy in being around and helping others. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I have been helped or supported by the people here. They are always willing to drop what they are doing to help out their neighbor.

On Friday we cleaned out our supply room and threw away a bunch of supplies. A short few minutes later our neighbors were out on the street digging through all of the things we just threw out. It turns out we are very wasteful people. It was like Christmas for ten to get all of the supplies we considered garbage. Again it's the little things. The joy I could see on the children's faces when they found some colored pencils and paper was unreal to me. It's heartbreaking to see just how little these kids have, but they are still happy and playful children. I see two little boys, almost everyday, racing cars down the road. These are homemade cars tied to a string that they drag around. They cut a bottle in half stick a small stick or rod through it, put the water jug caps on as wheels, and but a rock or piece of brick inside to give it weight. Someday they will stop moving long enough to get a picture. These little cars seem to provide hours and hours of entertainment and they made them from garbage.

Adventures of the week: introducing store to three year olds, getting the flu, having enough internet to watch a movie, Polaroid photo shoot, and a neighborhood dance party in the street.