As I'm sitting in a beach chair watching the waves roll in I'm also accompanied by a 11yr girl named Lida. She's been crying now for probably 30min and I have no idea how to help her and its hurting my heart. Lida sells bracelets and anklets to tourists along the shore, and when we first arrived she asked us if we would like to buy some. But as it was I was hungry and distracted by wifi so I said no to her and everyone else who came along looking to sell something. After I had some food and checked my e-mail a boy came by and I bought 3 bracelets from him, and while I was purchasing them Lida and her friend came along looking for some business again. Both of them speak English really well so I started a conversation with them as they were trying to barter with me, they said if I played a game of tic tac toe and won I could get a bracelet for free but if I lost I had to buy it. But I said no as I had just gotten 3, it was then Lida got upset and said she had already came by to sell them to me but I had refused and then instead I bought some from the boy. So as the situation was I decided to buy one more, but thinking that they all worked as one business I got the other girl to make me one with the colors I wanted. But then Lida got even more upset that I still wasn't buying one from her, she said she had never met a Canadian with such a cold heart, I was in fact the meanest person she'd met in 5yrs. Talk about a shock to my system, I like to think I'm a decent human being but as she sat on Anika's chair crying I started to wonder how good of a person I really was. I'm a missionary traveling the world but I look like a tourist so its hard for them to know that my funds are very limited and I don't have a lot of money to spend or a lot of room to carry it with me. It makes sense though that they can't tell the difference because here I am sitting on a beautiful beach under the shade of a straw umbrella sipping an ice coffee on my day off and I look just like a tourist who has money to spend. But in reality I'm just trying to enjoy my day off while using as little money as possible and sitting on the beach is a pretty cheap way to spend my day. So as much as I would love to help Lida and buy something's from her she is now so upset that she won't even accept my money, and poor Anika sitting beside me is also mixed up in this. Darling Anika is trying to console her, even bought her a coke which she refused to accept she wouldn't even let Anika buy anything from her. So both of us are sitting with her trying to make her happy but nothing is working, and after about an hour she sells Anika a headband and a bracelet and goes off sadly to find another buyer. I feel bad for Lida and I can't help but wonder how her home life is, if she has parents, or who is there to greet her when she gets home. I know that I can't possibly help everyone I meet but it sure would be nice to be able to, but then God reminds me that He has me doing exactly what I should be doing. He can do more for these people then I could ever even dream of doing. So I pray that Lida will be loved, and that she will grow up knowing Jesus and knowing that she is here for a purpose. And just now as I'm up to this point of the blog she comes back to give me and Anika both hugs and says we are now friends. So whatever happened in the 10min she was gone is beyond me, but my heart is so relieved that she is smiling again.
Me and Lida
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