A post by Mack:I wasn't lonely at the park because 15-year-old Jonathan was happy to hang out with me all day, along with his 17-year-old brother, Jimi. We spent a long time playing a game I call "Tube Tag", where the person who is "It" tries to throw an inflatable ring over the head of another player. The captured player then becomes It, and must catch someone else. (See the video on LiftOne for a demonstration of the game)(which cannot be properly played while holding a camera). Another favorite game was for us to stand up on the edges of the tubes and try to knock each other off balance.
Jimi was a riot. He loved to playfully harass his little brother, and try to embarrass him. At one point, Jimi communicated to me that I should 'make' Jonathan go and play on one of the kiddie slides. Jon had a "Do I really have to?" look on his face, but Jimi pushed him into the children's area, saying something that must have translated as "Go on. If you're sponsor says you gotta do it, then you gotta do it!" Once Jon was up at the top of the slide jostling the 5-year-olds for a position in line, a grinning Jimi pointed to my camera and insisted that I capture the moment on film.
Mostly, the three of us (or four, when we dragged Wilson along) rode down the slides in one huge tube, but one of the slides required us to use individual tubes. Jonathan insisted on carrying mine up to the top of the hill for me. Jimi decided that if Jon was going to carry mine, then he really should carry his big brother's too. Jonathan looked so cute staggering blindly beneath a whole stack of tubes!
I had fun with Jonathan and his brother, but I hope that Wilson didn't see all the time that I spent with them as me playing favorites. I tried my best to lure him into our games, but he didn't seem interested in joining us. I didn't want to force my company on the kid, but I can't help fearing that he was just shy and was actually hoping to be forced a little. Anyway, Wilson seemed to have a good time at the park, regardless. When he wasn't tagging around after Darwin's sister with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, he seemed to bond best with Carlos' brother. This is strange since they live in different towns and have only met (I assume) one time before, when Victor took everybody to Zizima in January. I wonder why Wilson and Jonathan aren't better friends. They live near each other and they are in the same grade at school, plus they share an awesome sponsor, so I'd think they'd be best buddies. "Why aren't you two friends?" is the kind of personal question that you just can't ask your sponsored kids. Even if I was rude enough to ask, I probably wouldn't get an honest answer (for instance, "We belong to rival gangs at school, and we have to fight the impulse to beat each other up every time you take us somewhere together."). I think the children only tell us sponsors what they think we want to hear. Seriously, am I really expected to believe that all my kids just LOVE doing chores around the house? Someday I'd like to get a letter that says, "At home my job is to sweep the floor, but I really hate doing it because it cuts into my soccer-playing time, and besides the floor will just get dirty again in, like, five minutes. What's the point in even sweeping it, huh?"
Jimi was a riot. He loved to playfully harass his little brother, and try to embarrass him. At one point, Jimi communicated to me that I should 'make' Jonathan go and play on one of the kiddie slides. Jon had a "Do I really have to?" look on his face, but Jimi pushed him into the children's area, saying something that must have translated as "Go on. If you're sponsor says you gotta do it, then you gotta do it!" Once Jon was up at the top of the slide jostling the 5-year-olds for a position in line, a grinning Jimi pointed to my camera and insisted that I capture the moment on film.
Mostly, the three of us (or four, when we dragged Wilson along) rode down the slides in one huge tube, but one of the slides required us to use individual tubes. Jonathan insisted on carrying mine up to the top of the hill for me. Jimi decided that if Jon was going to carry mine, then he really should carry his big brother's too. Jonathan looked so cute staggering blindly beneath a whole stack of tubes!
I had fun with Jonathan and his brother, but I hope that Wilson didn't see all the time that I spent with them as me playing favorites. I tried my best to lure him into our games, but he didn't seem interested in joining us. I didn't want to force my company on the kid, but I can't help fearing that he was just shy and was actually hoping to be forced a little. Anyway, Wilson seemed to have a good time at the park, regardless. When he wasn't tagging around after Darwin's sister with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, he seemed to bond best with Carlos' brother. This is strange since they live in different towns and have only met (I assume) one time before, when Victor took everybody to Zizima in January. I wonder why Wilson and Jonathan aren't better friends. They live near each other and they are in the same grade at school, plus they share an awesome sponsor, so I'd think they'd be best buddies. "Why aren't you two friends?" is the kind of personal question that you just can't ask your sponsored kids. Even if I was rude enough to ask, I probably wouldn't get an honest answer (for instance, "We belong to rival gangs at school, and we have to fight the impulse to beat each other up every time you take us somewhere together."). I think the children only tell us sponsors what they think we want to hear. Seriously, am I really expected to believe that all my kids just LOVE doing chores around the house? Someday I'd like to get a letter that says, "At home my job is to sweep the floor, but I really hate doing it because it cuts into my soccer-playing time, and besides the floor will just get dirty again in, like, five minutes. What's the point in even sweeping it, huh?"
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