Happy Diwali

Dear friends and family,

Hello! I hope you have had a good week! I did not post yesterday as it was Diwali and we had a holiday from School! I love Holidays! Diwali is the Indian celebration of the festival of lights! On Thursday night there was a big parade (motorcade) to celebrate. They decorate their vehicles with literally HUNDREDS of lights. It was really cool to see. The little girls dressed up as the goddess that is associated with the holiday and they sit still for three hours. It is a terribly uncomfortable position and I don't know how they do it. Someone was telling me that the goddess is one who symbolizes good triumphs over evil - and the lights that they shine symbolize the good. I am not really sure though - you could probably good it and figure out exactly what it is. I did have some Indian girls in my class who I am pretty close with - but we spent the whole time talking about 7 curry - which is the food they make at celebration. I LOVE curry - I think that I may have found my favorite Guyanese food.

Anyway - Other than that my week was pretty normal. I had a few more intense days at work this week. One day after another the girls are full of some sort of anger or sadness. At times it becomes overwhelming but normally I am able to keep calm until I get home when I can relax. I am learning patience.

On Monday there was a group of ex-pats who invited us out to dinner. We went to dinner with them and had an amazing meal and some really interesting conversation. Sometimes when I am at something like that I forget that I am in Guyana because it seems so different than my normal every day life. But I guess it is a nice break.

Other than that I guess the only other excitement this week came on Friday when we took the orphan boys to the church fair that they go to. It is right next door so we didn't have to go far - but it was still crazy. I was in charge of four different boys. Mostly I just had to make sure they didn't spend all of their money within the first 10 minutes. The littlest boy that I was in charge of was very sad that day. When I got there I was holding him and a lady came over and said good bye to him which ended up being his mother. He then came and sat with me and fell asleep because he was so upset. It was really hard to watch. Often the boys are not true orphans but rather children whose families can't take care of them for a number of reasons. For the whole day he was attached to my hip. I tried to put him down or distract him but about twenty seconds later he would be in front of me begging me to hold him. I realized then how much love you can have for a child without really knowing them. At least for one day he had someone to walk him around and care for him on a more one on one level. They do a great job at taking good care for the boys at the orphanage but there are a lot of them so its good to give them individual attention sometimes too. The boys are starting to get to know us more and more - and know when we walk in the gate they all come running. On Friday i was pretty sure that we were going to be trampled by 30 small children! Ha. I took a lot of really good picture with the boys and hope to be able to post some soon!

Well anyway - I am going to go for this week. I hope you are all doing well and I leave you with a thought:
A friend sent me an e-mail this week that said:
"As humans and as Christians we have an obligation to help those who need it most".
I know she was right in saying that - no matter where you are in the world - there is someone near you who needs help. And although it may not be physical poverty - poverty takes many forms and although not visible they can be just as detrimental. If you don't fight the poverty you see each day - who will.

Love,

Ashley Ann