Today I received a package from my parent containing joy and happiness, my camera batterie and adapter! Tak! I was able to upload all my picture from Iowa, Chicago, London, and Poland. You probably want to see them. We'll you'll just have to wait. I'm only going to give you bits and pieces of my trip now but when I'm home I'll show the pictures to people when they come and visit me. Then I can tell stories and we can share laughter...? :)
As I sit here sipping my "Bobo Frut" and contemplating on what picture or pictures I should show you guys, it's very hard to pick. One reason is because the girls in my cabin keep on asking me to sign their shirts (I'm pretty popular here, you know) but the other reason is that there are just so many great memories and things I could write about.
So I decided I'll write about the kids.
This picture is of Hela. She is a little girl I had last week. The littlest in my cabin. She's 7 and was only staying in my cabin because he sister who is 9 was also in my cabin. Hela became my little sister. I'm pretty sure she was a unsure and somewhat nervous of me at the beginning of the week but by the end of the week we became very close. She was adorable. The first thing she did when she moved in was organize her clothes. She put them in piles by the day, each little outfit including a pair of socks and underwear.
At breakfast later in the week, I sat and waited for her to finish her tea. When your that little it takes a very long time to eat a piece of bread and drink a glass of tea. So I grab a spoon and say, "polska?". "łyżka" she said. "Wishka?", I ask, "ok...". I grab the knife. "Polska?". "nóż" she replied. We did this until I learned little spoon, big spoon, fork, and knife. She should teach Polish at Washburn.
One night I asked her for a hug. She just looked at me for a second, then ran into my arms. She hugged me as tight as she could for about a minute. Then I put her back down. She smiled at me and walked away.
This past week it was hard to grow close to any of the kids in my cabin because of the language barrier. The most I can say to them is hello, goodbye, how are you, thank you, please, and just simple a couple word phases. The girs in my cabin were around nine years old. Only one of the girls were pretty good at english, the others could say as much in english as I could in Polish.
Some nights I would get frustrated because I wanted to be able to hear and understand what they were talking about both the deep things and the little conversations they were having.
Then I realized, I don't have to speak Polish to tell of Christ's love. I can show it to them. Yea, it sounds chiche' but it's true, actions speak louder than words. One night, all the girls in my cabin and I all sat up on a top bunk and "chatted" (which also means we played charades) for a while. I know that for me to take interest in their activities and what they are doing means a lot to them. I also know it's important for them to have that sister who really cares about them in their life.
July 10th
The day after writing the post above, the kids left. Sad day. I was really stressed out during the morning because we had to clean our rooms before the show that we put on for the parents. I was leading a dance with the kids to show for their parents so I had less time to clean. The performance went great though. If I was a parent to one of the kids who we taught the dances to I would be proud of my child.
After receiving a million hugs from the girls who were in my cabin, especially Julia who gave me at least 20 in one morning, one of the girls who I said hi to only a couple times during the week came up to me with her mom to give me a hug goodbye. She was so happy to go home but she also expressed how much she would miss me. Like I said I barely new this girl. Her mom saw how much her daughter was going to miss me and reached out and shook my hand and with the little english she knew told me thank you for being kind to her daughter and a good friend to her. She then asked for my adress so that her daughter could write me letters.
Sorry to say I don't know the name of this girl but it really shows how you can influence people without even knowing it. Obviously this girl looked up to me and without me knowing it I was being a role model in her life. It makes me want to be more aware of even the little things and the choices I make because of the younger kids who look up to me.
Other friends from camp had the same story. One said that a parent came up to her and told them thanks for truly caring for his daughter.
This week it's a whole new story. Most of the kids speak english fairly well. Most of them are my age. Some of them are older than me making them not really kids. I'm basically diving into the deep end this week. It'll be scary meeting all the kids but I think I'll handle it fairly well. Most of the kids/teens/people who come her are from catholic families and don't really know who God is and what he did for us. This week my main goal is to lead by example and to listen. These kids have lots of baggage and the least I can give them is friendship.
I'm a camper somewhat sorta but I'm also leading a dance workshop with another person and a "club" which me and my friend designed called "Girls Only" which main purpose is to help girls struggling with eating disorders.
Please pray for me this week that all will go well and God will guide the conversations I have this week and impact the lives of the campers.
