nico: on a day to day basis, i would say that the majority of my "struggles" come from my time working with paola or the other special needs kids in san pascual. the time i spend in my other house, santa rosa, with my boys, is more of a laid back relaxing time to just goof around and have fun. but we do have a few kids in santa rosa that have their fair share of problems. there are 2 in particular that i have been working a lot with lately, who could really use some prayers. the first is nicolas, or nico for short. there are 14 boys in santa rosa and i love them all, but i do have closer relationships with some of them than others. nico is one of the boys that i haven't really been all that close with until the past couple weeks. (part of this is probably due to the fact that he is never in the house when he is supposed to be... so i haven't spend as much time with him as the other boys!) anyway, i've always known that nico has some behavior problems... he always seems to be in trouble in the house and has been suspended from the school several times. it's hard to describe nicolas because he's not a bad or mean-hearted kid, he just for some reason always finds trouble. and he knows it... he admits it... he's not one of those kids that tries to sneak around and pretend that he's not doing anything wrong. sometimes i just have to laugh at him because he'll be in the midst of doing something, like yelling or saying a bad word, and then he'll realize what he's doing and cover his mouth with his hand and then he'll get this half-smile on his face and look over in my direction because he knows... it's like he almost can't help himself. i don't know why i didn't make more of an effort earlier, but i decided last week that i would make a behavior chart for him and try to do something special with him if he could behave for a whole week. i made a chart for the week, giving him 6 opportunities to earn a sticker each day. now, making him earn all the stickers for each day would be too much to ask at this point, but i thought 75% was fair to start. when i presented the idea to him, he was cute because i could tell he wanted to do it, but he just said, "no, i can't." and i said, "what do you mean, you can't?" and he was just like, "well i just can't behave well." (like i said, he's so hard to describe... he's just really honest and straight forward... he doesn't do anything maliciously, but it's like deep down he knows that sometimes its just beyond his control) i tried my best to tell him that i believed he could and that he had 6 chances every day and even if one of them was bad, that he could try again for the next one. he didn't seem completely convinced, but agreed to try. we agreed that if he did it, we'd take a walk to the nearby batey and buy a soda and possibly a snack at the end of the week. we started out the week pretty well, he was getting about 4-5 stickers a day... but then it all went downhill on wednesday afternoon. i guess he was hungry, because he and a couple other boys decided to ditch class in the afternoon and go looking for mangoes. he ended up getting suspended for the rest of the week. i was so sad! he tried to convince me that even though he wasn't in school, if he behaved well in the house during his suspension, we should still be able to go. i didn't agree. but, we had another good talk and i think he's ready to try again next week. i'm really hoping that at some point in my last 7 weeks, we will get to go!
big fish: yendi is my other "problem child". yendi is a very special kid. the more time i spend with him, the more i love him. in my first couple weeks, as i was still getting to know the boys, the only times that i really ever heard about yendi was when i heard about him getting in trouble... getting in fights, yelling at the tías, causing problems in the summer program. he's a tough kid. he's got this scar under his eye that i think is just so fitting to his personality. he also has an extremely sweet side and although he doesn't show it a lot, it's there. he's also got one of the best smiles i've ever seen... which is so fitting to that side of his personality (i'm determined to get a picture of it before i leave). he's a handful though... i admire the tías' patience with him. he can be extremely rude and disrespectful in the way he talks to the tías and to the other kids. he's almost never where he's supposed to be or doing what he's supposed to be doing. he is, however, great when someone gives him specific work to do. one time the consequence for his bad behavior was that he had to work in the garden and he did a great job. he showed up on time everyday and worked really hard. he is also always tagging along with our mechanic (an ex-pequeño from haiti)... he just loves working with him and would probably do it all day if he was allowed to. i've always felt that yendi just needs his energies channeled in the right direction. but it wasn't until recently that i had some more insight into his character... and developed a new nick name for him. i've been noticing that yendi is drawn to anything that isn't what everyone else is doing. he's the first to volunteer if there is a project that gets him out of the house and you can see him just always looking and searching for something better. and i realized that he's just too big for this place. he's like a big fish in a little pond... and i think he's just frustrated. not that he's any better than the other kids here, or that it excuses his behavior, but i do believe that some people are just too big for the world they're placed in. i really worry about him and pray for him, because i know he's one of those kids that could end up going either way. i just hope he continues to be challenged and use those frustrations he feels in a positive way. he's a great kid and i know God has big plans for him."christianity has nothing to say to the person who is completely happy with the way things are. it is a message for those who hunger and thirst - for those who desire life as it was meant to be." - john elderidge
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