So three times now I have seen the same mother and daughter and they always seem so happy and the little girl is talking away to her mom and her mom just sits there listening intently (try as I may to listen intently it usually unsuccessful as they're speaking Chinese...oh well) and then they laugh and talk some more and smile and I think about how much I miss my own mom (and the rest of my family of course) and how I'm itching to get back home in a week and a half : )
This weekend turned out to be a pretty good and relaxing one...I spent the first part of Saturday taking some much needed time to just relax, not doing anything, and only leaving my room to first run to the drugstore for more toothpaste and then to make lunch...then that evening I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway with one of my fellow staff members, one of her groups had given her two tickets as a gift a while back and so I went with her. And it was so cute! They did such a good job! A couple of things from the movie and there were a few new songs, but other than that it was "practically perfect in every way..." : )
So I was recently told that I should talk about the positive things that happen since it always seems that I am talking about my groups that I don't like because I don't want people to think I'm having a bad time...because I'm not...
So I mentioned in my last post about my group last week and how great they were, but didn't really tell much about them...so here you go...
First of all they were so goofy and had a ton of energy, but then when it was time to work they did the job and they did it well and worked hard. The leaders were awesome and the group was so easy to work with and I had no complaints all week...
They also bought me a present : )...every Thursday evening the groups are given a free night and so on this particular night I happened to get back to the church about the same time my group was getting back. One of the boys came up to me and told me that a few of them had something for me. I assumed they wanted to sing me this song they had been making up all week about the subway and asked if it could wait until tomorrow, but he said it couldn't and that I needed to meet them at the bottom of the stairs when I came inside, so I agreed. I came down the stairs to find three of my guys sitting and waiting for me looking excited like little kids. Then they told me they had gotten me a present and handed me a bag. By this time they were starting to laugh and I was a little wary as I opened the bag, not knowing what to expect. First I pulled out a giant Hershey bar and then I saw that there was something else in the bottom. By this time they are almost doubled over in laughter, so excited about the next part of the gift. So I pull it out and what is it? but a t-shirt that says "I heart kisses" and in the heart in a Hershey kiss.
"Do you love it, Jess?"
"Yeah, do you love it Miss Lewis?"...yes, they called me Miss Lewis because they thought it was funny...
"I absolutely love it!"
"Good! You have to wear it tomorrow!"And I did...underneath another shirt because I knew we would be getting dirty the next day and I didn't want to get my new shirt dirty! And when I came downstairs that morning they looked a little disappointed at first until I reassured them that I was in fact wearing my Hershey kisses shirt...
They were so fun...its groups like that that I wish I had for another week, to have the chance to get to know better and invest more in...they're the groups that make this job worthwhile... : )
This week is already off to a rough start...the main leader of my group is high maintenance and demanding, and the girls are princesses (even more so than the ones I previously wrote about) and blatantly defiant...I'm already frustrated...why can't I ever have two great groups in a row? Last week's group was awesome and I wish they were here for another week, but a really awesome group only seems to happen every 3 or 4 weeks for me...Lord, please grant me all kinds of patience for this week...
Today my group and I spent the day at an organization called Operation Exodus. During the school year it functions as a tutoring/afterschool program for kindergarten through 8th grade and during the summer it's a tutoring/daycamp/VBS program...located in Washington Heights, which is in Manhattan above Harlem...in case you were wondering...
It is mostly all Dominican, all sass, all organized chaos, all Spanglish...
Washington Heights is a mostly Dominican neighborhood, the kids at the program are all bilingual so the whole day was a mix of Spanish and English and I wished I'd paid more attention in Spanish class/continued on in my Spanish education...the first part of the day is spent on academics, then we herd the kids to lunch at a near by school, then its off to recess at the park where there are different activity stations but basically the kids just run wild for a good two hours and harass the poor chupe man (chupes are popsicle like snacks that a vendor with a cart sells for $1 and the "e" is pronounced as an "a")."I want a chupe!" "Did you bring money for a chupe?" "...No..." "Well, then no chupe..." (child runs off to try to convince chupe man to give them a free one....
I was constantly, desperately surveying the park looking for my kindergarten class. Honestly, I have no idea how we successfully got all of the kids across the street to the park and then the school and back again without losing anyone, but somehow in all the chaos we managed to make it happen.
After recess is snack, which is once again noisy and you're constantly counting heads as kids try to wander 
and refilling juice demands and telling kids to stay in their seats. Then was craft time and an attempt to teach about Pablo Picasso and finally telling a group of uninterested kindergarteners to just draw silly looking faces because that's about as close to grasping Picasso as they're going to get. Lastly comes praise time where the whole program comes together and worships and hears a Bible story. And once again it was loud as the kids took it upon themselves to scream out the lyrics to the songs...
Did I mention a lot of us were left with our own classes since some of the teachers had a half day of work? Yep, I spent the day with 12 kindergarteners who I'm sure were discussing my incompetence in Spanish because they for sure knew I didn't understand...I even carried one girl from the bathroom to snack Behaven style when she refused to join the rest of the class...
Ok, so it was exhausting and crazy and you feel frazzled for a majority of the time but really at the end of the day when they insist on showing you the picture they drew and hugging you goodbye it makes for a pretty good day...
In other news...last week ended with the 4th of July...obviously...
My staff and I staked out a place by the Hudson, made a food run and then sat for 4 or 5 hours waiting for the 9:30 firework display.
The city lined up 8 barges along the river and set off 40,000 fireworks...and it was awesome.
A good end to a long week...
I got in trouble last night with my mom for not having updated my blog since the 24th of June, so here you go...
Sometimes I have weeks where I feel like nothing happens. I feel like that's been the last couple weeks. Not that the Canadians weren't nice, but nothing too significant or outrageous or profound happened.
This past week was another group from Ohio and once again I had all younger kids. Everyone in my group had just finished the 8th grade and so technically they weren't even in high school yet...and it was exhausting. I felt like they probably thought I was just a grouch because I was constantly telling them not to do things and feeling annoyed with them. The fact that three of the girls in my group were princesses did not help my mood either.
The group was a little whiny (is that how you spell that?), had listening issues, and had a habit of saying things out loud about the people and places we were that should have just been kept in their heads...I was annoyed most of the week.
Sometimes I have weeks where I feel like I'm just going through the motions. I show up at the ministry sites and do whatever it is they need us to do. I put a smile on my face and hand out the next plate of food.
Sometimes I feel like I expect big things to happen and for God to be obvious in the work we're doing. It's not always the case, though, Not because he's not present where we are, but that just because we're doing His work doesn't mean he still can't work in a not necessarily obvious way to our human eyes.
Sometimes I just have to believe that even, though I can't see it I know God is still working in this city, at our ministry sites, through me, through my groups, and in our lives.
