Not one day on the race looks like another, and for someone that thrives on newness, this is one of my favorite things about the race.
Unfortunately, this Monday topped the charts on grossness. Monday morning when I asked Mama Penny, the orphanage's founder on how I could help, she immediately asked me to go buy 3 fine hair combs at the Puperia with Tia Nidia and when we got back, I found myself combing lice out of Nicol and Carly's hair.
It turns out one of the girls had a full head of thick luxious hair, but unfortunately that's where the lice made their fine home. So from one head to another the lice spread around all the girls, creating a head-scratching situation for Cassita #3 and for Tia Nidia. As my motto for the race is "whatever it takes", I came prepared with my own hair pulled back and covered with a bandana. While combing the girls hair, I found several little black critters alive and crawling on their strands and killed each with the teeth of the comb. Parents, you may think this is a norm in your household, but it sure gave me a taste of what it's like to be a mom (who would've thought I'd learn that on the race), enough of that gross stuff for the day right?
Not so fast, later that morning, I had Josue, my little 5 year old heart throb on my lap and the boys and I were watching Ice Age 4, when Jona, my little india adoptee "meh"ed me to pick up him, so I did and got him on my lap shared with Josue. After a while I felt unusual warmth where his butt was and also felt some weird movements down there. "No he better not be." I thought. But then it all stopped and I went back to watching Diego and the dad mammoth being chased by the giant monkey villain. Then I started to smell extremely unpleasant smells and watched as Josue gestured for me to get Jonathan off me, and as I did I saw what's left on my skirt, where he sat was a soiled circle, a poop stain. I did what any good missionary with a quick reaction would've done, ran out of the cassita as fast I could and got out of my skirt. That day will forever be remembered as the day I got pooped on and caught lice.
But then the adventure isn't over, Sarah, Meg,, Andrew came along when I decided to make a stop at King's Palace to see our new friends we made last Thursday, on our ATL day. I wrote some verses in Chinese on cards for her, hoping she'd let me talk to her further about coming to faith.
Mr. Yeh wasn't there but Mrs. Yeh, also known as Xiao Mahn was there with her daughter and was happy to see us. She told me that there's only like five Chinese people in this town and she was craving for some friends as she thought it wasn't pc to befriend her Chinese restaurant competition. I was happy be oblige and involved my teammates to chat with her as well as I translated. She told us that she had a brief history with Christianity visiting 3 self churches in China, but after the big earthquake in Sichuan, her friends saw much tragedy and death and stopped going. "If there's a God why would he allow such tragic things to happen and allow the death of so many innocent lives?" she asked, also pondering her own car accident when she, her husband and her daughter first came to Tocoa, and barely survived a car accident where she used her own body to yield her daughters. When they lived, she was adament that if there was a God, He would not have let them go through such an accident. We sat with her and talked through those things, and she gave Sarah and Meg each a Chinese name. None of us had the right answers for her, somehow I think it wasn't about having the right answers, it was good to allow her to process the big and small questions in life with us, just strangers a few days ago. We do believe the Spirit was present and working as we chatted together for hours.
Before we left, we wanted to buy the Tias at the orphanage some fried rice to bring back, as they all mentioned they loved Comida China (Chinese food). As I was about to pay for my order of it, Xiao Manh blessed us with free fried rice. She said she admired the missions we were doing at the orphanage and wanted to contribute. "I am not sure if I'm ready to believe in Christ now, but I think I may become a Christian in the near future." She told me.
I pray that she does!
Jona (Jonathan) and I, still friends after his little pooping incident. 🙂
Fried Rice given to Tia Sandra from the Gringos.
Tia Sandra, Briana, and her son Tomas enjoying the fried rice donated by Kings Palace.
