Saturday, March 5- Washing clothes, KB and the Puppies

I just finished hand washing my clothes for about the eighth or ninth time since I’ve been here.  The only, ONLY good thing about doing this is that it makes me nails all clean and shiny.  But that is IT!  It is a chore I will certainly not regret leaving behind me when I return to the land of washing machines.  Today was better because I washed earlier when the younger boys were out there.  When the older boys are out there they stare at me confused by my method of washing and tell me I’m not doing it right and I’m not really getting my clothes clean.  This place really is upside-down; boys tell me how to do laundry.

So I have most likely already mentioned a boy by the name of KB.  His real name is Earl Xander, but the amount that he is yelled at, I believe everyone appreciates his shortened nickname.  KB is the youngest kid here except for Baby Bob and the new infant.  He is also the smallest; however he carries in him the strength of about two angry teenagers.  KB is a bully—plain and simple.  You can sit and watch as he will be minding his own business and then an idea will creep into his head and he’ll get up and find someone that he can unleash his newest plan on.  He’ll just walked up to someone and push them down and run away giggling.  All day long you can here, “KBEEEEEE!” coming from every person on the complex.  Today during washing he continued to try to steal Dondon’s soap and then run of every time I took a step towards him.  Discipline is not carried out here the way that I’d personally do it; because a few raps with a bamboo stick could do this kid a world of good.  I thought maybe it was the cuteness factor that spares him the rod, but after being here for about 24 hours I noticed that his cuteness totally disappeared.  I used to hear his laugh and say, “Op, here’s KB.”  No I hear and I think, “I know that giggle… Oh, right its Satan’s.”  He has certainly had his sweet moments and I try to hold on to those memories, but twice now I have had to physically restrain him for several minutes as he thrashed, twisted and kicked with a power I did not know a 6-year-old could possess while he lamented not getting to complete some act of annoyance or pure evil.  I have all the compassion for the kids here and I am only starting to understand the pain many of them go through when the leave or are deserted by their families; however KB has been here since he was only a few weeks old.  This is all he knows and I think the spare the rod routine has definitely spoiled this child—but it’s not too late to fix that! (My personal opinion…J)

Last little note: There are currently (I recently found out) sixteen dogs living here. SIXTEEN!  And not to be mean to any of God’s creation, but they are just the ugliest mutts you ever did see.  One of them is named Ugly Butt; do you see what I mean?  Well dog6 and dog17 or something had a little fun a while back and we now have three little puppies as well.  They weren’t very cute when they first crawled out from under the old train car, but they have since found some fuzziness and are in fact quite adorable.  How any combination of these dogs turned out to be in any way attractive I don’t know, and I’m sure these little guys will morph into old ugly mutts one day too, but for now I am enjoying having them leap and bound and crash all over the place.  I’ll add a few pictures below.

Well today is Saturday and I have recently been told that Saturday afternoons are open for me to teach the elementary kids songs or dances or other things that they can perform in church.  I’m starting to get a lot of information I really should have gotten on day one, but whatever.

This post is dedicated to Renee Garner who has taught me a number of easy to learn/easy to teach, wonderful worship songs that I’ll be pulling from while I’m here!  You are also someone whose life I aspire to emulate.  Thank you for being such a wonderful example of what a Godly woman is.