Imagine leaving your 15th birthday...

to ride a bus for 3 days straight, with relatives you don’t get along with, to make it home to your Mom.

J—left today.
I thought she was going to leave 3 weeks ago. So she wasn’t packed when they came for her today. I wasn’t ready either. I found out about 30 minutes before they got here. She had a premonition that she was leaving today, so she made us a special breakfast. Chocolate rice?! That’s her “birthday breakfast” she said. It was sooo sweet, M kept telling me that J hadn’t added any sugar, like I’d believe that when our sugar jar is completely empty. Before she left she made me a clay sign, that I’ll post a picture of, and she hung the picture frame I hadn’t gotten around to hanging.

The worst part is she left without her diploma/grades/other official paperwork. Her school hadn’t given them to us yet. They had run out of the good paper to print it on or something. Her mom found her a job, and she isn’t continuing in school (a shame, I think) so it won’t be that important.

Two cute things she did a while ago:
A strap on my tank top broke, and I asked if she had a safety pin. She said, actually, you can borrow my tank top that I have. She left my room with my tank, and came back with a tank that worked, but that had the same tags, stains, etc. She had quickly gotten out needle and thread and fixed it for me! But she pretended that it was hers and she was loaning to me….”You don’t have to wash it before you give it back. I’ll throw it in with my clothes.”

I asked her if she’d seen my tweezers. She said no, but that I could borrow hers, and brought them down. They were my tweezers and she winked.

I LOVE YOU
The 2 year old I watched has learned to say “I You.” This means I love you. But I think she might know the right times to use it, besides just parroting it, even though she has only lived with English speakers for a few months. I was pushing her on the swings, and she was LOVING it. She kept giggling, and then said “I You” At the very least, she associates “I love you” with happy things. But it warmed my heart that she seemed to say it in reaction to the pure enjoyment she was having.

HER? She? HIM? He?
Another language thing: I know this 9 year old that has been exposed to English all her life, and has probably been living with an English speaking family for several years. Her has VERY good English, but her says “Him, Her, Their” when her’s supposed to say “He, She, They.” Him also mixes up gender often. I don’t know why Her talks like that.

Pride goeth before a fall- video game style!
or
Jennifer as Tim the Toolman Taylor

That’s the truth. One of the girls has a gameboy, and I’ve seen her play it a lot, but never had gotten the chance. Last night I was telling them how good I am (was) at video games, and that I love playing them, and that as a child I beat Super Mario Brothers and Link billions of times. So they said, “oh would you get me through this world. It has flying fish” I said, “No problem, the expert is here, you’re gonna see what excellence is” haha….
…5 or 6 dead Marios later, I apologized and gave it back to B. It was world 7-2 which is considerably harder than the levels in world 3, which is where I thought she was. The worst part, is I don’t have much of a relationship with B, since she isn’t directly mine, and I was hoping that winning the world for her would give me some credibility.

One other nice thing that happened:
I helped do school/spent the day with 8 Mexican kids the last 10 days or so. Two Canadian girls came down and spent the everyday/night at the house, and did the cooking and things while the parents were gone. (I could have offered to cook, but we all know how that would have turned out!) I let the two girls do some tourist shopping one afternoon, while I had all the kids. After they left, I was thinking about how I’ve always wanted a cowry shell necklace, but that I’ve never bought one. They came home and Janet told me she’d bought me something, but that she didn’t know if I would even like it, and that I should be honest. It was a cowry shell necklace!!!!! I hadn’t even told anyone. I could say that it was a gift from Janet, or that it was a gift that God provided. Either way it fits into my worldview.



..."I cast all my worries to the sky"
Currently Listening: Poughkeepsie by Over the Rhine