I Choose Joy

While most of the North American teachers have headed home for a break, summer is just gearing up in the Cochran household. We’re pet sitting for 2 rabbits, a cat, a turtle, and a fish, watering plants and starting cars. We’ve also had a continual line of kids in and out because good friends are in the process of packing up to move to another country after a brief time stateside. This in the midst of cramming each day to teach a year of classes in just 4 weeks of summer school. This year there is the wrench in the works that students have to pass the exam their teacher prepared for them so I’m trying to discern exactly what I need to teach and how to prepare them for this.

Meanwhile there’s normal life. Our week of birthdays is fast approaching. Yes, family planning hubby jokes to have 4 birthdays in a week’s time. Sent a package off to the US for son #2 for his day. Planning a special weekend event for the older girls to celebrate-hard to do when your friends are all on break so you get to celebrate sweet 16 with the family. Not Disney but real life here in Central America.

We have 2 kids in basketball camp every day and one who has graciously agreed to babysit for the four weeks. We’re hoping for some visitors from home sometime soon. Meanwhile I had begun the project of simplifying life just prior to all this chaos and so the house is a bit of a wreck…..So we continue on. Keeping the pieces together and holding the keys for now.

The calendar, and the fact that there are lots of kids hanging around the house all day indicate that it must be summer, but somehow my brain just can’t adjust. All of the things that my summer used to contain don’t exist here. There are no free family movie days, library programs or trips to the pool. It’s not even warm enough to want to go near a pool. The rainy season has settled in on us and we often have several days in a row where there’s light but not much sunshine-and it’s cold, damp 60 degree weather cold. It’s hard on a sun loving person.

I’ve just discovered that I am to be the summer school English teacher. A new venture for this mama. Though I spent 12 years homeschooling some or all of our kids, this will be a first- to teach someone else’s kids outside of church. Must admit there’s some fear of the unknown but hubby keeps reassuring me. And when you’ve asked God to supply the need, then you can’t very well overlook His methods. So overall, this summer will be totally foreign to my scope of experience.

The national schools are just halfway through their year at this point. We’ve been continuing the project up the mountain at Limones. Yesterday a woman we met there stopped by to talk to me. She was seeking help with her daughter’s tuition. So many needs here, how could we possibly fulfill them all?

Another gentleman from church is working with a single Mom there who also works here at the school. They’d like to build her a real house to replace the cardboard and tarps she currently lives in. She had shown me a picture earlier in the year and asked my help and now the question is asked by another-can we do this? It can be overwhelming to see the need, and know that God has given us so much. How can I explain to her that even though I have a roof over my head and three meals a day I don’t have the abundance she pictures?

Though we are not typical of the North American church (8 kids, no car….) we are still so blessed. What responsibility do I have for the way God has blessed me? And how does one balance meeting immediate physical need with the eternal foundation that lasts? Even if I solve this problem, the real difficulty is a spiritual one. Too many Moms here are abandoned and left to struggle for their family alone. Our Spanish church here is testimony to the fact that the only way to truly help this country is to heal relationships with God. When this relationship is right it begins to carry over into the family and the rest of life.

For this summer I want to steward my time (the resource we all have) to impact eternity. So far it has involved helping a friend with moving by packing and watching kids. Next week it will involve encouraging kids that they can pass summer school. On the weekends we will continue building at the school and children’s church. Perhaps I am finally learning  summer is not about me and personal enjoyment or expectations. And maybe I need to teach my children that same thing by example.

The construction continues. Every day. Six days a week. Hammers and a drill. Grinding away cement in a manner that resembles the high pitched scream of the dentist’s drill. Maybe that’s why the sound is so irritating. Unfortunately I’ve had a lot more dental work than I would like. That sound brings back too much discomfort. Swollen lips and aching teeth afterward…ugh. We’re reaching the end of this school year, but the construction will probably remain until August when the next year begins. Maybe I will miss the noise but surely not the continuous lack of privacy.

This week children’s church will be the story of the choice of David as king. I wish I were in the states and could get a bunch of Burger King crowns for our craft. The kids love art supplies in any form. Of course, last week a half-dozen paintbrushes went missing, and someone wiped green paint on the outside of several walls. Fortunately, Mary had a baby wipe and we made quick work out of it while it was still wet. The kids are better at last. They respond to discipline just fine when it’s expected. Every month it’s a challenge to settle them down again. And it does help to have a couple of men there. I wish my Spanish were better. But I know when I go well prepared with materials and prayer. When I don’t, it’s like Andrew’s comparison to Dante’s levels of hell. After one week he decided children’s church was not for him and compared it to the level where they must put televangelists. After the week when we had 6 street kids Mary agreed with the comparison. They seemed to like our new songs-ones I remember from growing up. And they absolutely love puppets in any form! We used some more life- sized ones made from brooms and it was a lot of fun. I want to make some when our church has a place to store them.

The seasons are trying to change but it still cannot rain though it will hang in the air all day. Maybe at night. I secretly hope for a rather dry summer as I love sunshine.

I seem to have hit a wall in knowing what direction to head in the Fall. I will not be doing an ESL class and don’t want to be in a classroom full time. So what skills can I volunteer and in what setting? The question remains.

Sometimes it seems like the hill is a mile long but I know that’s not true. Trying to walk in air so thick you could slice it doesn’t make it any easier. But we’re determined that if we can just keep it up it will get easier one day. Little by little it will be easier to make it up that hill without having to stop and gasp for air. While it’s true that the air is thinner at our altitude it’s also true that trying to take better care of your temple is more difficult in midlife. Some days it seems like there’s no area without vast room for improvement…my house is a wreck, I haven’t kept up with the verse I was trying to learn, the menu board is a week old and dinner is an hour away. Is there some way to escape to a place where life is easier? If I concentrate on one area I let another go.

After two false starts we finally made some progress up at the school in Limones. We had waited for a man supposedly knowledgeable and able to act as a “foreman” of sorts for the repair projects but he seems to have other priorities. Harold headed up Saturday with just the materials, one volunteer teacher, and a driver to help. Thankfully, Solomon was quite willing and  two more men ( parents of students) showed up to help as well. School was in session, so the principal sent some kids out to help clean up the bathroom area where the guys planned to work. None of the stalls were functioning at the time and a lot of trash had accumulated around there and the pila, where we plan to set up a handwashing station. Right now the cement block pila is the sole water source for handwashing, rinsing mops etc. and the water in it had the murky look of pond scum-probably from whatever had accidentally fallen in as kids pushed up to use the water. I remember hearing the principal say that they’ve had a small child fall into the pila while trying to wash his hands. Eventually there will soon be some sinks too.

Each toilet tank needed functioning hardware, and one bowl was cracked beyond use and missing a supply line (project for next trip). The guys did the plumbing and worked to get water flowing from the tank to the toilets. This involved a run down the mountain to the maintenance shed to adapt pieces to fit and drop garbage at the same time.Then they scraped and painted the walls and doors a bright verde and salmon-which Harold kept teasing Solomon about since in Spanish the two are almost the same.

In two weeks there should be a big work party to get the roof on the classes. Harold was surprised while working to hear English spoken and came out to find the parents of a former student running an ESL class. She was excited to hear about the repair plans for the school and full of ideas for other ways to help out. We’ll see what develops.

The guys made two trips down the mountain with trash filling the back of the pickup each time. Trash cans are a definite priority so that the kids can start taking pride in their school. Because trash service ends about where we are on the mountain, most folks further up just burn what they can or find a convenient spot alongside the road and dump it. The school needs to devise some kind of method to dispose of trash.

Dale, who went along to help Harold commented that, “we could work here every Saturday for a year and not make much of a dent in what needs to be done.” A slight exaggeration, but perhaps not too far off.

Next time, our day will begin with a 6 am men’s breakfast at our house for guys from the church. Perhaps we can round up a few more helpers that way and invite the parents to our church plant up in that area as well. I’ll also make up a couple of crock pots of Honduran style “espagetti” because the roof will be a daylong project. Pray for all the potential in this community. It’s exciting to see how God is working things together in this area.

It’s something you’re not really thankful for until you can actually see it. Our air here in Tegucigalpa has made news lately. It’s so thick that visibility at the airport was reduced to a mere two miles and the planes couldn’t even get in. Over 100 separate forest fires are burning in the mountains surrounding the city. This combined with normal air pollution and our lack of rain in several weeks makes the air so thick you can actually see it. When we open our window at night to sleep-quite necessary with the heat and lack of air-conditioning- you can smell the smoke.

I’m longing for a bit of rain washed clean air right now. It would help with the fires as well.

Today was the first one of our Semana Santa break. We did our rounds of taking care of everyone’s animals. To date we are reponsible for 3 dogs, 2 rabbits, 2 turtles and a fish- plus our own pets. It’s fun for the kids to visit the animals and have a chance to be caretakers for a short time.

I also got a chance to babysit for two littles. Our neighbors were celebrating their fifth anniversary and decided to have dinner and a movie. So we spent about 5 1/2 hours with a two year old and a 5 month old. Little guy is nursing so he wasn’t too happy with the bottle left for him but we both made it. He’s a chunk and weighs almost as much as his two-year-old sis.

While it’s fun for a while to remember those days of smelling like baby spit and hauling someone around on your hip I don’t long for it like I once did. Though it’s hard to accept moving into a new season, perhaps I am beginning to adjust.

I’m looking forward to a carefree week with the kids home-after we make it through children’s church.

Wow, last week was busy. Our littlest hope’s class had the chapel service first thing on Tuesday morning after our day off Monday. It was fun to see Prekinders acting out the Passion Week. She walked around in a blue bathrobe with a puppy dog on the back playing the part of a disciple. Her sister had helped wind a purple scarf around her head to look authentic. I think the little hearts on her sandals gave her away though. They did a pretty good version of Steven Curtis Chapman’s chorus in “Let us pray” and when we watched the original video for devotions with the whole song she informed us that he wasn’t singing it right.

On Thursday I headed with  our jubilant one to Dos Pinos, a poor neighborhood next to the university where one of the school parents has a mission church and feeding center. Each of the first graders found a partner from the kids there for the day. Our tenderhearted one chose the littlest girl there. Her name was Milagro-miracle-and I was reminded that even these tiny ones are miracles not unknown be their creator. She started the day quiet and shy but by the end the two girls were twirling in circles as they sang. We tried to draw out another small girl who came later and appeared to be there alone, but Cindy remained distant, not wanting to participate in games or songs and turning stiff if I even tried to hold her hand. I realized what a gift a tender heart is in this culture where life often has so little value.

Friday began with a celebration for Fathers. If you live in Latin America you get to celebrate Dad in March. The elementary had a special musical program which I had hoped to skype to the folks but discovered skype is now blocked for public access there so I took video instead. Hubby and I breezed through 3 classrooms where each of the kids had special cards and snacks for him. As that event finishedthe Relampago (lightning) futbol tournament was just starting. This  is grace girl’s tenth grade year so she was part of the planning and carrying out of the event. He class picked a neon yellow shirt with a black headband. She declared that it made her look like a gangster. I think it made the slackers easy to spot. Our team won their first game but came in second because of a last minute goal in the final game. It’s always fun to sit in the stands with kids screaming  “goooooaaaaallllll” while banging those crazy inflatable sticks. Latinos tend to react enthusiastically to most events and soccer is definately their passion. Overall, the little guys enjoyed eating way too much food from the vendors and we all got a little sun despite the clouds.

So that was our week of lightning and miracles. Everyone is excited for the Semana Santa week coming. So many possibilities!

While reading of the blustering storms in the Northeastern US, we’re enjoying our own version of a day off here in Central America. The past two Mondays we’ve enjoyed an extended weekend. The first one was technically a “cold day” where the temperature at 5am was below 45 degrees. Although it warmed up to 70 by afternoon, it had been a long, cold weekend and the administration gave some grace in allowing a day off as we hadn’t taken any yet this year. This past Monday was declared a day off because we hadn’t used up our alloted “cold days” this winter and with temperature starting to get up in the eighties now it’s highly unlikely we’ll need them.

Hubby decided that the kids should enjoy some “sledding” on their cold day. One idea led to another in his mind and they headed out Sunday afternoon with an old porch cushion and some tangerines to snack on, to the open area behind the school called “Narnia” by the kids. It’s just an open sloping stretch behind the gym, carpeted pretty deep with pine needles, and it made a great sledding hill. After checking for rocks or other unseen hazards, they climbed to the top with the cushion in hand while Dad stood at the bottom and filmed their fun. That night we watched the compilation of videos and declared Central American sledding a success-and you didn’t need to freeze to do it!

This morning as I walked the kids to school you could smell it. The wind was blowing so hard you couldn’t tell where it was from, but it was definately smoke. “It smells like hotdogs cooking!” said our jubilant one. She would, of course, think of the fun end of things. My mind was turning over a recent fire that came dangerously close. Our pastor, while fighting it at night in his backyard, fell from a cliff and by the grace of God was caught in a bush and managed to pull himself back up. The next day as they looked at the place where he fell in the light they realized that his fall could have been several hundred feet. God is good.

No one seemed concerned about the fire this morning. Life went on as normal all around me. Perhaps it’s so common that unless it threatens our back door no one cares. Aren’t I just the same in my attitude? I have the truth that could save those around me, but I go along as if nothing is the matter and only when it directly effects me am I willing to take the risk of fighting the enemy. Though it’s a gorgeous sunny day out, the smell of smoke should remind me of the danger that exists. I should act like one “on fire” in my urgency.

Thank you Lord: for saving our dear pastor’s life,for beautiful breezy days and reminders to be aware of opportunity, for little girls who see the bright side in everything, for a Geneva opportunity for a son, for a day without diesel smell  and a curious cement pipe,for new neighbors, for a changed outlook with a turned room, for a longtime friend who listens…