We have been in Bolivia for about 2 weeks now, and it has not taken God long to show me that loving on the people of the world will look different everywhere and, most importantly, you do not need grand things to make a child smile.
It was a beautiful day in Bolivia, the sun was shinning, the birds were chirping, and I’m sitting outside enjoying the peace and quiet when 30 little kids come running past me towards the basketball court. I then see the rest of my team walking by carrying some of the smaller kids telling me we are going to play games since the kids have the day off of school, so I get up to join them a little hesitant since I was loving some solitude (very rare nowadays since we live with the kids).
The kids are split into two groups and put into different color jerseys and then lined up. All of the adults, including our team and two French girls that have joined us are sitting on the side expectantly waiting for the games to begin. I pull out our camera and immediately start filming and taking pictures because these children could not be having more fun or smiling any bigger! The adults that run the home, lovingly called the Aunts and Uncles, have prepared a series of relays for the kids to play, and they are loving it!
The first relay: Running to a chair to pop a balloon with your butt. This is hilarious because some of the younger kids start crying from the noise of the balloons popping, also equally funny because the Tia’s are having to pick them up and place them on the chair to pop the balloons!
The second relay: Running with a coin in between your legs. The kids finally figured out how to do this, but the younger kids which were going first could not get the hang of it, and we were all cracking up laughing at their efforts.
The third relay: Filling a coke bottle with water from a small cup. Thankfully it was just water, because this relay got pretty messy.
The fourth relay: Sack race. This sack race was designed specifically for South America because instead of using a potato sack the kids were using a rice sack! The most common thing to eat down here. 🙂
The fifth relay: Balancing a potato on a spoon. We were all really surprised at how well the kids did at this relay, of course some cheated, but it was fun nonetheless.
The sixth relay: Sending a boy from each group to see who can finish a banana and an orange the fastest. This was definitely the grossest relay. Those boys were flying through that food and making the biggest mess possible, but the kids loved it and had an amazing time cheering on their teammate.
God showed me while I was watching and filming that these kids didn’t need anything spectacular to make them happy. They had a sack, a potato, and some water and were having the time of their lives. I have never seen so many children so happy and smiling in my life. I know that we have very little here on the Race, but we have so much even now compared to these children and it made me think, “What do I really need in this world to make me happy?” These kids had so little and were so joyful, I have a backpack full of things and still don’t even really need most of it. So I ask, “What do you have in your life that makes you the most happy? What do you have that you don’t need?”
Taking the kids to a park in the city, it was a long ride so they started to fall asleep….
