This week I had a magical moment while flinging smelly socks. It was a moment that made me realize why I came on the World Race. It took my breath away, and it all happened because of a little boy named Jesús.
Jesús is a bright little eleven year old. He, along with his little brother Franklin, lives here at El Ayudante under the care of the teachers. Jesús is lanky, with a height that speaks of being tall when he is grown. He is fearless, constantly jumping, climbing up things, leaping off of anything he can find. He doesn’t just run across the lawn, he runs and cartwheels as fast as he can.
Jesús is also deaf.
All that energy and love is bundled into a little boy who can’t communicate with the world around him. He knows only a few words in sign language, is largely illiterate, and speaks only a few common words, so his communication with the outside world largely consists of grunting, yelling, or waving his arms. He gets attention by pulling on shirts, shouting, or getting into mischief.
From the time the first time I saw him my heart went out to him.
Here is a little boy that has spent ELEVEN years being ignored, misunderstood, and overlooked. I can see his intelligence, his sense of humor, his need to be loved in his eyes, but I can’t tell him so. I can’t tell him not to take my things, I can’t tell him to go back to paying attention in school… I can’t even tell him Jesus loves him.
Now both Jesús and I are blessed. Sarah, one of my fantastic teammates, actually knows sign language. She has spent every afternoon at El Ayudante with Jesús, patiently teaching him to sign. She also started holding sign-language intensives for both the teachers and our team, so we can learn to communicate with Jesús as well. I’ve always wanted to learn sign language, so I’ve been spending some extra time with Sarah to learn vocabulary and common phrases.
It’s through one of her lessons with Jesús that I had my magical moment with smelly socks. In a break between our business seminars, Sarah grabbed me and asked if I could help her during the beginning of her lesson with Jesús. It was the first time she had asked me to join her, but I was delighted to get to help with her lesson that day.
We found Jesús and a quiet spot outside on the porch to start the lesson. Sarah and I had simple example conversations with the concepts of ‘how are you’ and ‘I want’, then I would turn to Jesús and Sarah would walk him through asking me both of the questions. We spend 15-20 minutes just going back and forth. Since Jesús is just learning the basics of conversation, it was slow going but it seemed like he might be getting it. We were working on the idea of wanting an item. Since we were on the porch and no other items were around, Sarah signed for Jesús to ask me for my shoe. That’s when the conversation took a turn.
Jesús asked for my shoe, and I handed him one of my sandals. He made a big production of receiving it, throwing on an ‘ewww’ face while pinching his nose. Then it was my turn and I got his shoe. I did the same ‘nasty smell’ face, and he decided to take off his smelly sweaty sock and fling it at me.
That’s when the great sock war of 2014 started. Jesús flung his nasty sock at me, so naturally I threw it back. It descended from there into fun chaos. We kept flinging his sock, then both socks, back and forth with increasingly dramatic gagging scenes and ‘smelly’ faces. During this time, Sarah (the traitor) was behind me egging Jesús on. Then Jesús and I had a thought… Why not fling a sock at Sarah? I did, and Sarah shrieked and jumped away from the sock. She was signing about it being a horrible thing to do, I was laughing my head off, and Jesús quite literally ended up rolling on the floor laughing.
It was that moment that touched me. That moment when I was laughing so hard I was choking, with Jesús gasping on the floor belly laughing and Sarah indignantly pointing at the sock and making ‘yucky’ faces. It was a magical moment where three people who spoke a variety of three languages were able to communicate, laugh, and tease each other. It was a moment where Sarah and I were able to communicate through sign language and laughs with a little boy whose been so distanced from the world. I realized at that moment, “This is why I am here”.
It revealed why I am here, in Nicaragua, on the World Race. This is why I left my job, salary, hot water, safety, and comfort. I am here to help give a voice to a little boy, even if it comes through flinging stinky socks at each other. I am here to show a little boy who has been abandoned, neglected, and ignored in the past that he is loved.
This is why I traveled 3,437 miles from my home – to show the love of God to a child of God. And all this learned through flinging smelly socks. God works in funny ways, huh?
God bless & XOXO,
Kristin
