Another day

It truly feels like things have started rolling and we are following a real schedule. After a wonderful breakfast of fresh papaya this morning, Denissa and I headed into town to settle our driving school bill, where, after flashing our pearly whites, we got a 10 euro discount and used the money to buy ice cream. We spent the morning preparing for our classes and at 3:30 headed out to the Vampire (yes, it's an actual neighbourhood) where we each have a children's class. For some reason the children were rather rowdy today and they just kept coming! I had to raise my voice once which shocked the children but after explaining to them that I didn't like to yell, they calmed down a little. The largest problems arise from the huge age differences and the language problem. Just when it felt like these 18 children would never calm down I was sent two angels! These two older children, about 11 and 12, appeared out of nowhere and started quieting the children, handing out markers, and passing out paper. They said nothing to me until I asked them for their names, which they gave and then returned to the children. After prayers, they just left. It was so strange.
We raced home at 5:30 to eat and got back in the car an hour later for our junior youth classes. Denissa facilitates an already existing group, while I headed to a new house in the hopes of finding another group of willing youth. I unfortunately chose the exact time to walk to this new house as the entire neighbourhood soccer team decided to end practice...luckily they behaved themselves and I escaped with only a few calls of "Snow White".
To my great joy, I arrived at the pre-determined house to find four smiling and enthusiastic junior youth, soon to be joined by two more: 10-13 years old, 3 boys and 3 girls...a perfect group! We brainstormed for a name and decided on the Tigre-Butterflies to characterize the group's pursuit of beauty and grace whilst maintaining strength; we then played some games and talked about what they wanted to accomplish in our time together and we parted with big smiles and happy waves.
Lesson Learned:
In dealing with youth and children, one must be extremely cautious in how they deal out encouragement and support. One can sometimes perceive that a certain child is in need of special attention and neglect that another needs it just as much, and you can end off doing more harm than good.