Through Simple Eyes

Berta's little half-sister is visiting with us. She's only four. Bernicia has been to our house I think two times before, but only now is she nearly old enough to remember any of it. There are many things she's never seen before because she lives in a hut on a riverbank many miles from any town. All she sees from day to day is the green of the forest and the muddy flow of the river.

The other night we were watching the movie The Blind Side (I highly recommend it) and at three points during the movie Bernicia almost made us forget about the movie as we were more entertained by her!

In the movie the daughter, Collins, appears with her face covered by a mask of bright green cream. Bernicia asked, "What's that?" Dena answered, "It's her food." Bernicia replied in Spanish, "Don't she know how to eat?" Remember this is a four year old who frequently covers her own face with food.

Later at the Thanksgiving table while the family is joining hands to pray, the character Michael opens his eyes and looks around. Bernicia noticed and asked, "Don't he know how to pray?" Ah, Bernicia. Reflecting good training, even at four.

Near the end of the film the football players are tackling and rolling on the grass. Bernicia asked, "Don't it make 'em itch all night?"

Practical questions from simple observations. Cute. Just cute! We should all step back at times and view life with such practical simplicity. Maybe we'd be less stressed.

Small Victories

Raising a teenager one has to learn to celebrate small victories. Living in the third world you can sometimes become a little frustrated with inconveniences from bad conditions or limited goods and services, not to mention attitudes and practices of the general population. It may be even more so living among a population segment that is not your assigned target group.

Among the possible sources of frustration is the challenge of raising a teen and coaching that teen to be self-sufficient in finding means of keeping himself occupied and entertained when there are truly limited things for him to do. Obviously we don’t want our children to fall into sin and to run with the wrong crowd. We’ve been blessed in that the options for becoming involved in undesirable activities have always been very few for Jacob. While he has a strong personality that can at times be challenging, the only rough spots with him have been right within the four walls of our home.

So I think it appropriate to celebrate and be reminded of how good things really are when small victories come my way. American teens can be difficult to please and demand expensive clothing and toys (computers, iPods, TVs, etc.). They can ask for cars, trips, and cash to hit the town. Jacob asks for (almost) none of these, knowing that to ask would really be futile. When I hand him something that pleases him it’s a relief because often his peace is my peace.

Recently I stopped by a small convenience store (our town has about two and only one has anything I would want) and found some canned Dr. Pepper. Now in Peru that is rare and they charge over a $1 per can as it is imported. I bought several as it is Dena’s favorite soda. At the house I handed one to Jacob and his response with a smile was, “Oh, sweet!”

I had scored. I successfully pleased a 17 year old teenager with a can of Dr. Pepper. What was the victory? That in an age where teenagers are not happy unless they are surrounded by technology and fashion I had a teenager pleased with a simple down-home can of Dr. Pepper. “Yeah, it’s sweet!” God is good!