Some Words, and Another Week

So, I think most of the maintenance group was a little disappointed about the amount of work we did in our first week. These feelings were naturally accentuated because the other groups had amazing stories about getting to know children or adults with hard lives, and witnessing to them. Anyways, Dana knew that this was going on and so he shared a quote with us from Pascal "Do small things as if they are big things and big things as if they are small things." The reason for this is that everything is done to serve Christ. If we do a small thing and do it well, serving God, then we have fulfilled our telos. Moreover, when we do "big things" we shouldn't puff ourselves up over how great our work is, but instead do those big things as if they are small things. Dana also talked about how important our work really is: cleaning up Sizanani is an admirable end; our work in one week would have taken the one groundskeeper a month to complete. This talk helped me feel a lot better, and of course feel slightly ashamed at thinking that manual labor is somehow inferior.
A friend sent me these verses:

1 Corinthians 12:14-25 (New International Version)

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

"The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other."

July 14, 2008

Another week has begun, and I've switched to the orphans group. Today was great. I woke up, had breakfast, spent some quiet time, played a competitive ultimate frisbee game, went to St. Joseph's and worked on a slide presentation and database enhancement, and spent some time (well, all afternoon) with the Sizinani orphans. I am totally exhausted, but feeling good. The orphans had an unending source of energy and loved soccer. Also, we taught some of them how to throw a frisbee. A few of the girls from our group brought fun toys like parachute men, marbles, bubbles, chalk, and jump ropes for the children as well.

Still, those of my group who talked to the orphans about their lives said that they universally wanted to be adopted. They did not enjoy life at the orphanage. That was pretty sad. They seemed happy to me, but I am sure it was because we, their big playmates, were there. It must be lonely at the orphanage day in and day out; nothing breaks their schedule and they never travel anywhere.