What do we think about when we think about today?
Angie: I think of 15 Guyanese children intently watching and hearing a story read to them by one of their own (Genny) with a voice that resonated with pure delight!
Stephanie: I think of school age girls helping us this morning with little ones and learning new relational skills. One day they will be parents from Plastic City and today they helped parent younger children.
Angie: I think of my 7 year old bouncy girl who had to touch everything and see everything before it was time do anything. Who, when we finished our morning session, did not want to leave our side.
Stephanie: A little 3 year old girl in her second session of PAL who cried LOUDLY and had to be carried home by us because she did not want to go home after our session.
Angie: A desire to show Stephanie the country side of Guyana by enjoying a 30 minute bus ride to Parika with Genny by our side to see the mighty Essequibo River.
Stephanie: I remember walking through the mud-soaked, overgrown, winding paths into a squatter area known as Sea Dam.
Angie: I reflect on Joan who asked us if we were looking for someone as we negotiated what seemed like a wooden corn maze of 6 foot high dilapidated fences in Sea Dam. She became our guide and historian as we talked on the sandy bank looking over the Essequibo.
Stephanie: I am thinking of a ten year old girl who stood on the bridge to her house peering for the first sight of us coming into Plastic City for PAL this afternoon. Once spotted, she came running to hold our hand and walk with us to lessons.
Angie: I am celebrating, Compton, a new Pal mentor who took a risk to enter the world of boys playing marbles in order to encourage them to come to PAL. His presence of talking to them and then watching them wooed them to the porch for a first time session. Though the boys are known to us a different connection took place today as a man interacted in the life of a young boy.
Stephanie: I am thinking of adults from Plastic City who stopped on the wall to watch us because they could not ignore the enthusiastic voices of 25 children learning that verbs can be fun. Their eyes really shined as they realized how intelligent they really are.
Angie: I am thinking about our good decision to talk about why the children are out of school today so Muslims could celebrate Eid-ul-Adha. Today we became the students for something that was important to them. As they were teaching us about Abraham we were showing them that we cared about them as a person.
Stephanie: We did eat dinner! I think of a great meal prepared together with my friend Angie.