tatiana

two years ago, i went to the river for the very first time. it was a sunday afternoon in october, and my friend who was supposed to go with me had had to leave the country suddenly because her visa had expired (by leave, i mean cross the border to peru and come immiediately back). so i waited for over an hour alone on the corner of the street in a neighborhood i had never been to before, not exactly sure who i was supposed to be meeting. this was before i really understood the flexibility of bolivian time. the lady who runs the ministry finally arrived and she showed me the path up the hill to the "church". i spent that first sunday sitting in the little building watching her try to teach sunday school to a roomful of rambunctious children. about half way through i picked up a little 2 year old girl who had been crying and rocked her to sleep. i was slightly overwhelmed by all the children and the chaos, but holding that sleeping child gave me a sense of purpose.

last year tatiana had lice and they shaved her head :(

this past sunday, two and half years later, that same little girl, tatiana, now four, came running out to meet me and my roommates as we started to climb the mountain to get to the church. the nice, easy path is no longer there, and every sunday i look my fear of heights in the face as i climb the path that is slowly wearing away. this sunday had a little added excitement as the mean dogs started fighting with the nice, protective dogs and they all came running down the path towards us! and although every week i want to say that i can't do it, i can't go up the steep side of the mountain, the fact that tatiana is there holding my hand gives me the courage to keep going. because she is relying on me, she doesn't know that i am terrified of heights, she only knows that i am bigger, stronger and able to help her tiny legs get up the mountain.

once up the mountain, and safe from the dogs, we all piled into the tiny brick building. this particular sunday, sarah was helping some of the older girls with their math homework (teaching bolivian math in spanish!), jenny was practicing english and reading with a couple of other girls, another girl was laying on the floor reading a book of bible stories, and the boys were playing with a little foosball table (go figure). and i was sitting in the back, once again holding tatiana, practicing different flash cards. we had been practicing number flash cards for a couple of months now and it was on this day that i realized, i have taught tatiana how to count! when we first started, she would yell out random numbers, and even when i would point to each object and count up to the last one, she almost never knew what number came next. however, this past sunday she was the one pointing to the objects and counting in the correct order! sometimes, when the numbers got bigger, she would still need my help, but she would put her finger on top of my finger as i counted and she could always say what came next. and i can't really put my finger on why, but for some reason, teaching this little girl to count has meant more to me than the many things i teach to my second graders every day.