The Imitation Game

The school year is officially over. Final grades are in, graduation is over, and nearly all of the kids are gone. It’s been a pretty jam-packed week, but despite posting last week, I wanted to write another entry for a couple reasons. First of all, with all that has happened, there is plenty to write about. Secondly, I leave for my three and a half week vacation on Thursday, and will not be taking my computer. Because of this, there will probably not be a post for about a month, but when that post does come, it will detail all of my traveling adventures.

I am pleased to say that our Christmas program was a success! With the resources we have here, I think we put together a relatively high-quality production. It was mainly a musical program featuring voices, and handbells, but I also had a few acting scenes as Jesus. The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot, and it was a nice touch for our last Sabbath with everyone here.

The following Sunday, we had our last family free-time with everyone here. I had decided that I wanted to do a special dinner and have a miniature Christmas. You would think the boys get tired of rice, but they claim it’s their favorite food, so that’s what I made. To go along with it, I made tortillas and prepared some of their favorite toppings for rice: fried potatoes, chives, eggs, and mayonnaise (store-bought). After dinner, I presented each boy with a small gift based on my belongings that each one asks to use the most: hand sanitizer, my top, one of my frisbees, a bag of sugar, my “Inglés para Dummies” book, toilet paper and pencils, and my pencil-shaped stress toy. Although the gifts were simple, the kids were pretty excited about them which made me pretty excited as well.

When Monday rolled around, not only did finals begin, but graduation preparations picked up to a frantic pace. Amid all the chaos, the father of one of the graduates came to build an outdoor stage (which wasn’t even used for the event due to all the rain). With several days left to go before graduation, the stage became the center of the kids’ attention and immediately caused problems. With the rainy season in full force, it got pretty slippery, but apparently not enough to stop two of my boys from play-fighting on top of it. Things escalated, and one of my boys fell off and broke his arm. BAD. Like bone through the skin bad. He was rushed (relatively speaking as it’s a 12-hour trip) to La Paz in a taxi. There he received the attention he needed, but due to an infection, he is still there recovering. It put a real damper on the week, especially for my house, but thankfully, with time, it seems that he’s going to heal fully. Of course, your prayers would be appreciated as he goes through the long recovery process.

On the topic of well-being, I should probably give a quick update on my “boro”/leishmaniasis. Thankfully, it turned out to be just an infection. It’s still there, but quite a bit smaller than it was before thanks to antibiotics and charcoal compresses. I also had a short bout of food poisoning on Friday which rendered me utterly useless in helping the kids pack up to go home. By Saturday morning, though, I was feeling much better and was able to enjoy the weekend's events.

In the midst of the flurry of activity in preparing for graduation, Thursday was Familia Feliz’s traditional end-of-school feast: La Cena de Gala. While the students enjoyed their first day of summer sleeping-in and playing soccer, the volunteers decorated the “Big House” and cooked up a storm. The whole night turned out a success as primary graduates were recognized, awards were given out, and funny skits were performed over the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. The main course consisted of the traditional Bolivian rice dish, majadito, along with potato and cheese empanadas. We also had salad, bread rolls from the French bakery in town, fresh mango juice, and a mango cobbler for dessert.

A few SM’s, myself included, decided to do some improv skits in which we imitated the students during different parts of the day--PE, breakfast, school, and work. I think our best performance was the work portion in which we played UNO, spun tops, and did pretty much everything but work when the “supervisor” wasn’t watching. Of course, when told we could leave after machete-ing to a certain point, we finished in a matter of seconds. The kids thought it was pretty funny (a testament to its accuracy), but then it was their turn. They went through several short sketches where each one made fun of a different teacher. It turns out my nose-smashing incident wasn’t forgotten as quickly as I hoped it would be…

The next day, all focus turned back to graduation for good reason--there was still a lot to finish. When Sunday rolled around, there was still tons of decorating to be done and food to cook for the reception afterwards. After helping make cupcakes and lasagna in the kitchen, I went over to the church to help with the decorations. Just minutes before the start time, the final touches were made and we all ran back to our houses to get changed. Although the preparations were hectic, it turned out really well. Being the first-ever graduating class here at Familia Feliz, the kids, volunteers, and 200 attending were all pretty excited. It was an awesome end to an awesome year, and I couldn’t be more proud of our seniors here--they’re quite a talented group.

As much fun as it was to imitate some of the kids here, I got to wondering how much better life would be if we tried to imitate Jesus more. However, as opposed to others laughing with us in the case of our skit, it’s common to be laughed AT when trying to act more like Christ. But Jesus didn’t mind the critics during his time on earth, and we shouldn’t either. The reward is worth so much more than our earthly “cool-factor”. No one ever said it was easy, but as CHRISTians, we have a name to live up to.

TL;DR

This early post is my early Christmas present to you all--don’t expect anything day of. I also had early Christmas with my kids with some very non-traditional food and gifts. My health has taken a turn for the better, but one of my boys is in the hospital with an infected broken arm--your prayers are needed. It’s been a busy, but successful (and tasty) week with Cena de Gala and graduation, but now things are slowing down with nearly all the kids gone--just in time for my vacation. As Christians, we have a name to live up to.