fotitos

Left to Right: (my compassion child Rony (far right) and his father and brother whom I visited last November, my short hair cut which has finally grown, kids Mera, Junior, Alan, Starlin, and Abi playing before school starts, the view outside my house to our neighborhood, the garden we are finally growing at Montana de Luz)



"However selfish soever man may be supposed," Smith wrote, "there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

This quote is from Freakonomics by Steven D. Levit and Stephen J. Dubner, a book I recently finished reading. I highly recommend reading Freakonomics because it really makes you think about social problems in an intersesting sense of insentives and personal drives. This quote by Adam Smith was interesting to me because I thought, what happens when we don't get the pleasure of seeing what we are working towards? What if justice is such a long-term plan that we aren't in on seeing "results"? We can hope and pray and struggle for things unseen before our eyes and maybe even the generation after us. This is definitely something I've struggled with lately as there can be so many setbacks at times working with a vulnerable population and with HIV/AIDS, a rampant disease. Everyday, I'm working to see each opportunity and challenge with new eyes that don't always rely on results in the Western sense. What does it mean to do justice and walk humbly anyways?
Luckily, all but one of our kids passed and are going onto the next grade this Monday when school starts. I'm going to be working with Marvin, a 14 year-old boy, who hasn't passed first grade. We are starting a program called Educatodos which helps people get caught up to at least 6th grade.
I'm also working to teach some conflict management skills. This seems to be something that is definitely lacking here, as the kids don't know how to deal with social aggression. As my vocabulary expands, I'm learning how to be a better teacher which just takes soooooo much patience. I kinda want to go back to every grade I passed and just thank my teachers for having put up with a lot. Especially kindergarten teachers. However, I've found the secret of using chocolate and stickers as motivation.

May you all keep motivated in whatever you are doing during these cold months, even if it sometimes takes a little hersey kiss to get you there. After all, I'm just carrying on one of the greatest life lessons my dad taught me.