Peaceful Toy Exchange

Today was a good day. I woke up at the usual 5:00 am, ran sprints in the pineapple fields, strength training with my body weight and a medicine ball made of a rock-filled coconut, cold shower, banana-and-coffee smoothie...and that was all before 8:00 am. A little later I walked my 6-year-old host nephew over to a neighborhood Christmas celebration in a nearby park. There was music, dancing, relay races, soccer games, and best of all...a nonviolent toy exchange. Yes, the police department sponsored a huge toy drive that allowed them to bring a huge number of nonviolent toys to the party, and any kids who has violent toys at home could bring them in and exchange them for a shiny, new, nonviolent one. I loved it, and so did the kids. It was beautiful to watch all the kids run to their houses, come back with fake guns, knives, and other atrocious-looking things, throw them away and get a nice board game or soccer ball instead.

After the party my hsot nephew and I went on a long walk in the pineapple fields. As we walked we came upon en empty box that someone had thrown on the ground (very normal occurrence here). It was the box of a toy truck with pictures of the truck and others on it. Now, I don't talk about the economic situation of my host family very often, and you wouldn't know it by seeing the house that they rent, but they are actually quite poor. I nearly started crying as my host nephew RAN over to the box, squealed with excitement, and started hugging the empty box that he found on the ground. "Morgan, look! What a beautiful box! Can I take it home with us???" After checking to make sure it didn't have anything disgusting on it I told him we could (I mean, who's gonna say no to that request?) and we walked back to the house. We spent the rest of the walk talking about all the different things he could do with the box (cut out the individual pictures to make little playing cards, make a Christmas card for his Dad, make a poster to put on his wall....). Although part of this scenario made me sad, it's also one of those situations that happens to me every day here, that just makes me appreciate everything I've been blessed with so much more. It can be very hard not to take things for granted at times, but constant exposure to situations like this certainly makes it easier to appreciate everything. Here's a picture of him with the pictures he cut out of the box:



Getting back into the swing of things after going home has not been easy, but slowly things are coming together and seeming normal again. It definitely helped to have a day to just enjoy being in my community instead of working all day. Once the rush of camps in January is over and the school year starts again in February, time is going to FLY!!!!

Wishing you all a very safe, happy holiday, and hoping that everyone gets to do something to show their appreciation for all their blessings in life. Peace.