you're standing in line to pay for your groceries and the guy who's checking them looks you up and down, then asks what you speak.
"English."
"What's your mother tongue?"
"English."
"Where are you from?"
"America."
"America? Oh."
I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person this kind of stuff happens to.
So, I've been back for about a week now and am almost fully back in the swing of things. I started working 3 24 hour shifts at Child Haven on Sunday. It was good, but pretty exhausting. The kids are adorable and love having a new person around, but I don't think I was fully prepared for how different they are to my nieces and nephews. It felt like all I did during the day was correct, discipline, and correct some more. There are eleven of them, and they come from some pretty horrendous situations (physical abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment ... one was even witnesses to the murder of his mother). There are four younger ones (all 3 years old), and the rest are between 6 and 8.
I LOVE the 3 year olds ... it's the older ones I struggled a bit with. I had to spank one of the 7 year old boys on my first day, which made me sad. But, I was reminded that it was part of my job, and that in the face of willful disobedience I had to set my own feelings aside.
I've also returned to my small group here in Northcliff ... fun times as we talked about the masculine and feminine qualities of God. I was already tired, so while the conversation was lively and full of passionate debate about whether gentleness was a feminine quality and the role of leader/authority was masculine, I'll admit that one of the highlights of the night was the conversation about camping in Botswana later this year. Oh, and a woman's place of submission. Always a good topic in mixed company.
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