Kids say the darndest things...

This morning the girls asked me why I was not so fat because I eat so much food...I tried to explain the concept of metabolism to them in my broken Spanish and they just gave each other these looks of bemused non-comprehension. I thought it was funny too so I thought I'd share some other amusing anecdotes with you all:

When I first got here and was talking about where I was from with the girls, they wanted to know who else I knew from the United States.
"Do you know Molly (another volunteer)?"
"Yes."
"Do you know Sydney?"
"Yes, I met her at formation camp."
"Do you know Shakira?"
"No."
"Do you know Justin?"
"Justin...Beber?"
"Si!"
"NO."

Another time I walked with the girls to school and while Sister was talking to one of their teachers about some issue or another, the English teacher introduced himself to me (I wonder why he thought I could speak English...could it be my accent?) and we started talking. I told him I was from Washington State and he said, "Oh yes, Seattle." I was like "Yeah!" Finally someone knows where I'm from! Even the sisters thought I was from DC. A couple of days later the girls told me that he had mentioned me in class and told the students that I had very good English. I was of course surprised to hear it, but glad to know that I can at least speak one language. 

A couple of days ago I was playing futbol with a bunch of girls on the patio and the bunch slowly whittled down to two and then one (versus me). I was getting my butt whooped, it would have been totally embarrassing if it wasn't so extremely casual and I wasn't in a position of authority and kind of wanting them to win (only a little). It was all I could do to block her kicks, no chance of making it to the other goal...I was down like 5 to 25. But this girl, she kept saying "Okay, it's 8-9. Now it's 9-9." She always kept reinventing the score so that I was right behind her. She's smart, she can count, she was just being nice to me :)

I think that's it for the moment, Oh, also, the girls told me today that they think I'm "muy enojanda" which I am pretty sure signified a combination of angry and pouty or irritated, judging by their gestures. I think it's because I got upset when the girls didn't want to go to adoration and told me they had homework (they didn't, they never do, it's like the government doesn't believe in it and they had more then enough time anyway to do it if they did) and pulled a girl's chair out from the table yelling "VAMOS" with my most stern face. When they don't listen, when they talk about me behind my back, when they lie about their chores, I am patient with them but firm and cheerfully insistent. With such disdain for Christ, my heart just broke.  You can dis me but my patience disappears quite quickly when it's Jesus. Ay, I cried in adoration. I felt so bad. None of those girls came, sister talked to them about her disappointment in them and they stayed and "studied." I pray for these girls every day that they will learn to love Jesus. Because He is the only one that they can depend on, and that's just a fact.

Full disclosure: I did loose my temper one other time when a girl, after weeks of not listening when I asked her to water a different bed in the garden (they persistently over-water...maybe because they don't want to do anything else?) I grabbed the hose out of her hand and said "Escucha!" (with a very stern face). I apologized immediately and said I was a little sick and didn't have much patience (true). She walked out of the garden. This is not the end of this saga (ah adolescence) but tomorrow we will meet as a garden group and go over tasks and assignments for each day so that it is a bit clearer for everyone hopefully. I still have to figure out how to explain that we can't plant all one thing at one time or we have to harvest it all at one time and that means they have to eat a ton of lettuce which they dislike greatly. Ay, yi yi.

Peace, blessings, sleep...more to come about the exciting festivities this week with the remains of Don Bosco in El Salvador!!!