House Visits and Christmas Spirit

Hello everyone. This week, I really really want to put out this ongoing prayer request for the kids. The longer I am here, the closer and more personal I get in the children's lives - and of course, the more you love them and find out about them, the harder and harder you realize their lives really are.
This Saturday I went with Sonia, the school's director to visit the houses of some of the kindergarten children. It was a very eye-opening experience, but also really neat to get to know them up close and personal in their living environments. This little girl's name is Nadyeli, and she lives in barrio Cristo Rey with her mother, father and little brother. Here's a picture of their little kitchen, it was incredible to see the size of the house they were living in....you can see basically all of the kitchen in this picture, I was standing against the wall on the other side to take it. Behind that curtain is their family bedroom, about the same size of the kitchen. I also saw many other houses as well, got to travel around many different barrios. But it isn't just the houses that made an impression on me - what the children need the most prayer for is their home situations. There have been many days when I see a child in the nurses office with a really suspicious bruise or cut on their face, and when they vaguely and quietly tell me it's from 'falling', I end up having to send them to Sonia, to investigate for child abuse. The problem with this country however, is that when you want to report child abuse to an authority, it has to be done in an extremely cautious manner, because in most situations, the abuser will kill the child if they think they're found out. In Constanza, a child was just found who had never left his house ever in his life, and he was ten years old. He was taken to live in the Kids Alive orphanage there, so thank God that there was some intervention in that situation, especially since the dad had been a practicing witch doctor. Everyday, we're just surrounded by this stuff, and it's so hard to see, because I love the kids so much, and I don't want to let them go home to be tied to a tree, or get their ears torn off, or being beaten by a stick that's bigger than they are. Please, please pray for the kids, for their safety, and also that God would protect their little hearts from all these things they're exposed to.
And then there are the kids in my classes, who start off being the worst behaved, the toughest, the meanest, but after giving them time, suddenly out comes this sweet little kid who just wants some loving attention, just wants to be a child. That certainly is a wonderful time when I get to see the kids come out of their hard shells, and be children, so we can show them Christ's love, and let them know that someone cares. These two boys are in my 5th grade class, their names are Joel and Samuel - when I first got to ANIJA, Samuel was the nastiest kid I could've imagined, with the filthiest things coming out of his mouth, and the worst class behavior of them all. And then suddenly one week, he came quietly into my office, and just sat with me while I did my work. After a few days, he began to talk with me, and let me be his pal. He's still not an angel in class, but he's doing much better, and when I look at him, I don't see the same suspicion as I did before - I see trust. Please pray for these kids, but also for their parents; they only do things like this now because it's how they were brought up too.
One more prayer request would be for the school's health. I know it sounds crazy, but the 'cold' 70-degree weather and huge amount of rain we're getting is giving the entire school terrible colds and coughs, and lots of allergy problems. Pray that the kids would get better, and get some rest on their Christmas break.
On a lighter note, and speaking of Christmas break, the classrooms at school have all been decorated with little trees and lights, and paper cut-out stars and such. Its lots of fun, and now that we're down to finals week, it's really a festive feeling in the school. We're preparing for some Christmas parties in class, and even have a teacher's secret santa going on, which has been really fun. Which brings me to the fact that I will be home in less than two weeks!! wow, i can't believe how fast this first semester has gone, what an amazing time it's been. I'll hope to see many of you at home, and until then, thanks so much for your prayers and for reading this site! ...the kids say hello and 'feliz navidad' too. : )
Dios se bendiga

~allison