I don’t like children, and they don’t like me. Good thing I came on the World Race, huh? But really, I don’t know how to talk to children in English, much less in Spanish. Children and I do not mix well.
Ministry in Guatemala? Feed and teach children in the villages. Yeah…
We get to a school on the other side of Xenacoj and there are children everywhere. They’re cute, don’t get me wrong, but they’re children. I have no clue what to say to them. A few of the team begins serving food to them, some of the team is speaking with them as they stand in line, some of the team is playing with the ones not yet in line, and some of the team have gone into classrooms to hang out with the children.
And me? I’m just standing there, uncertain.
Eventually we’re told to pick a classroom and go. So I picked a classroom and went. The neatest thing happened, the children wanted to talk to me. I couldn’t understand them. I could barely speak to them. In any case, more and more of them were coming to stand around me. Why? I don’t know. It was amazing how happy they were to see me and be near me. They had smiles and open eyes, and they were not indifferent to my being there.
The class goes on. The teacher continues in his arts and letters lesson while I walk around to help. (Well, “help.”) They go out for recess, they come back in, and the teacher asks me to teach English. So I teach the simple things like colors and greetings when all of a sudden it’s time for me to go. One little girl comes up and hugs me. A couple more of the girls come up. And then more and more until it was the largest group hug I’ve ever been in. The entire class. Their faces and smiles.
So it was time to leave. And I do, but a few of the children follow me out. They wanted to hug me, one on one, with me, just them. One after another. I don’t know why.
I’m not that great of a writer to accurately describe this scene, but just know that it’s one of the most beautiful pictures I have in my mind of the race.
The incredible part of this, however, is that I did nothing to deserve this affection. I couldn’t understand them and I couldn’t speak to them. The only thing I was, was present.
