I have a bad attitude. Lately it has been really bad. Today it was terrible. I find myself frustrated by my own body stench. I realize that perhaps I am the only one who realizes the severity of my stench (as others may be distracted by their own non pleasant smells) but let’s be honest; I stink. I wonder if bad attitude leaks out through my pores.
First of all, I should be really thrilled right now; we have a visiting mission team, and therefore we have electricity. Electricity is nice. We are charging everything we can at the moment and I am using my computer to type up all the ‘blog thoughts’ I have been journaling. This team happens to be especially nifty cause the team leader brought me a bag of clothes from mom. {thanks momma!} I was thrilled by this cool hat and scarf mom sent me until I had to remove them to be presentable to the other visitors tonight. (the mission team was cool with my fashion sense, some other Ugandan visitors for a conference are here too). Forced removal of my hat/ scarf caused the yucky rebellious, sarcastic, mean part of me to rear its stinky head.
Ok, back to the stench; it is both literal and figurative. On the literal side; I stink. Today was a long hot day. It started with no bath this morning. [and by bath I mean no rain water collected in my basin and splashed over whichever body part takes precedence for the day] It continued with a grand total of 5 trips to and from school. Today was a Caleb day (the special needs kid I told you about) and those days are always hard. Shout out to special ed teachers. You are a special breed of human. God did not give me the gifts I need to be as kind and as effective as teachers / parents with such children. Caleb is stinky- really really stinky. Today he was gag-worthy stinky. I understand why, he is incapable of bathing on his own, but the wherefore of how to spend all day with him without gagging is still eluding me. Additionally, he is really testing me lately. Rationale and reasoning skills of like a six year old, crazy hormonal dumps of his chronological 18 years, and a new cockiness that comes from familiarity with the new program = constant testing. Today I had to put him on time out three times- he hit a teacher, punched a girl, and slapped me. Time out seems to be the most effective discipline for him since he longs to be in the center of all the action. But still- UBER frustrating. And did I mention that on his particularly stinky days he seems to want to lay on me, hug me, and rest on my shoulder?
There is a conference going on here at the school. The kids had a half day of classes and then were expected to help prepare for the evening’s program. Kids will be kids, but some days, their childishness is a bit much. Today it was a bit much for this stinky girl. Girls are struggling to carry heavy desks while boys watch and mock them from the sidelines. I send three students in search of rags to wipe down desks, they all three pull a Houdini on me. I wash the desks alone after finding three rags in less than five minutes. I am wiped out and tired of making decisions for the conference and ask four big S4 and S5 boys to walk home with me and help carry chairs back. They refuse on the grounds that they have already helped and are now tired. So I walk down alone, carry five plastic chairs on my head up the hill, and then they swoop in to save the day. I was so not impressed. In fact, I almost refused them- but better sense won and I let the now seven boys share the load of the five plastic chairs.
On the non literal/physical sense; I stink. My attitude has been sucky lately. There really is no excuse. I am supposed to be a loving, godly, adult, auntie to these snotty kids… umm… I mean, these beautiful children. I find the loving, godly, adult part particularly hard to pull off while carrying chairs up a hill.
One of the kids accused me of lying today, so I told him to jump off the mountain. Real good example huh?
Please keep me in your prayers.
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