Free It's My Life by Melody Carlson Page B

FOR THEM. PLEASE, SHOW ME HOW TO PRAY.…

NINE
Sunday, August 19 (day of rest?)
    They try to Keep Sundays as a “day of rest” around here, but the problem is there is still lots of work to be done when there are so many children with so many needs. So we all pitched in this morning, then we went to church service (where our youth group sang several songs for the congregation), and now we pretty much get to spend the remainder of the day as we please. Right now, we're in our room having a little quiet time before we all hop in the bus and drive over to the beach (which is about an hour from here).
    Thankfully, I'm feeling a little more peaceful about the situation here. I have learned (through Alex) that many of the “orphans” here at the compound are originally from the garbage dump. And that's why so many are unadoptable–they still have living parents. And although their parents (according to Alex) may be serious drug addicts or mentally ill or just basically unable to care for a child, they will not sign away their parental rights to their children. And the parents don't seem tocare that this deprives their child from ever being adopted into a loving family or into a better life. Alex says it's because Mexicans basically have a very strong sense of family and heritage, and even if they can't care for their own, they don't really want to give them up either. If you ask me, it's pretty selfish on the part of these parents, but then I probably don't really understand their culture very well yet. Anyway, this explanation did help me to feel better about the dump kids, like maybe they'll have a better situation before long. Alex says that many of them will wind up here eventually. The problem is the mission doesn't have enough room and finances to support all the local children. That's why they've developed that shabby “annex” orphanage we visited. And their plan is to create more and more orphanages, but they can only do so much for the time being. Or as so many of the people say– mañana (that means later). Everything around here is mañana–meaning we'll get to that later. I just wish later could come sooner.
    So this is my plan. When I go home, I'm going to get everyone I can to send money down here. And I plan on doing my part too. And maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference for some of those kids out at the dump.
    But for the rest of this afternoon, I will try not to dwell on these things. My friends are thinking I'm all depressed and moody. So I'll try to put on a happy face. Especially where Josh and Andrea are concerned, because Andrea is acting all sorry toward me, like I'm jealous that she and Josh are an “item.” Which is totallyridiculous. Okay, maybe I was a little concerned at first, and yes, it tweaks me just a little even now, but somehow in light of the desperate needs of these poor, starving children, Josh and Andrea's love life (or whatever it is) just seems a trifle insignificant to me. And so I plan to laugh and smile a lot for the rest of the day.
Tuesday, August 21 (a big step for me)
    Today Beanie and I went to the annex orphanage to help out again (our third time there). And it's amazing because today it seemed a whole lot better to me. I mean, it's still a shaky old rickety building with outhouses and everything, but today I could see how it was really a great place for all those kids to be (maybe because I was comparing it to the dump). But I mean, these kids get real food (okay, mainly beans and rice and a little fruit and milk), but they also get health care (a real nurse comes out once a week). And they have these little cots to sleep on with sheets that are fairly clean. So compared to the dump, it's like staying at the Ritz. They even have toys to play with. (Sure they're not the great est, but better than old tires and rusty tin cans.)
    So anyway, before we drove the Bug over there, I stopped by the kitchen to beg a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, and while the