Soccer and Prayers

"My Hunny, thank you for forwarding me all these nice messages. It helps a lot, when I read it I feel like I'm doing it for everybody.

This third week of work at the school/orphanage was great. The 5th grade students are really close to me and we have such a good group. As I told you, they were so happy playing with the soccer ball we gave them, but one of the teachers took it from them for some reason. So I went to talk with the teacher and got it back, and it is great to see them organizing themselves at break time to play soccer. They invited other kids from other classes, set goalposts with bamboo sticks and they play until the last minute of break. I cheer for them with the girls and take pictures of them running bare feet in the dirt, running in a heat heat of more than 100 degres. Today they said I need to play with them so I'm now organizing the girls team!!! they are all excited and our game is Monday.

I've been talking to them about respect for each other they are starting to be more friendly with each other, the boys help the girls and they don't hit each other as much as they did before.

They were not doing very well in their writing, so we worked hard this week on essays and readings. One of our essays was about family, which gave them a lot to talk about, and many of them wrote about the family that they have now and the parents they already lost. But in all of them I found many sentences expressing their faith, happiness and hope for a great future.

As a treat for making such a good progress and working hard I gave them starburst candy in the end of the week. Oh my gosh hunny, they devoured it in a second... haha

I'm really proud of them, and I heard from more than one person this week that they are the best class in the whole school :) you can imagine the big smile on my face!!!

I'm also working with the kindergarten, they are really cute, and they ask me everyday to come to their classroom. They stay alone, without any teacher for hours almost everyday. So next week I'll focus on working with them.

They call me "madam" all the time, and even if say they can call me Miss Eliana, or just Ely they won't :)

In the 5th grade there is an student who is 16 years old and he has learning disabilities. He is usually in trouble with the teachers for bad behavior or for not doing anything, I've seeing a few bad attitudes from him but I'm sure his only defense is to be rude sometimes and he works in a different way than the others. Well, on Wednesdays they have "worship" in the morning and I was watching them from outside, and I saw him singing a worship song with his eyes closed and his hands lifted, he sang passionately and beautifuly, so I thought with myself: I'll see this kid in heaven!! Later on I had a song about Jesus to sing with them because they have MRE (Moral and Religious Education) and I could hear him singing louder then everybody else! I filmed some of it to show you :)

Remember I told you they have to share chairs and sometimes they have to sit in 3 or 4 in a chair that is supposed to be for 2. So I used some money from the donations to fix all the broken chairs and they will have new chairs next week. The carpenter is working right outside and we get to see the progress of his work. The kids are excited and I told them some friends from US are giving it to them so they want to write letters saying thank you!

There is a lot I want to tell you hunny but I left my journal at home and its so hot in here that I can barely think!! haha

I'll tell you more on the phone.

I also would love to answer all the nice messages and comments from everybody, but the computer doesn't help that much. So please tell them I say Thank you so much!"