Running of the gringa

I find myself running with honduran children more often than I find myself correcting my students' English. Well, possibly. Yesterday, I had running club with only one of my girls from school. She was the only one to show up, so we went running together and when she wouldn´t go on her own anymore, I held her hand and we ran together. In addition, last night I went to the cancha to play with my cancha boys and they said they wanted to go running. So two of the littlest ones grabbed my hands and off we went six honduran children circling me as we run down the street together.
Running club is twice a week with 5th, 6th, and 7th graders and I´m sort of in charge of it. We were meeting up wtih another school, but I think we will just have it on our own since having parents arrive on time to pick the kids up seems to be an issue. I´ve started teaching English classes to a group of five of my neighborhood kids between 3rd and 7th grade. Thanks for those oreo cookies Anna, they certainly enjoyed eating them with me!
This weekend I might be off to the beach again. It´s Ethan´s birthday, one of the other teachers. He turns half a century old. Hopefully this time, we wont return with any sicknesses...

School is, well, interesting. I'm learning possibly way more than my students are. I enjoy watching them learn and explore, but I think I've realized....I am happy to have this experience in a lot of ways, but I much more enjoy the relationships I can have with other children when they randomly run with me in the streets or play with me in the cancha.Maybe it's just a part of growing up, but I don't really like all the organization that goes along with a teacher-student relationship. But to be a good teacher, one must do so. It's very different because the majority of my previous relationships with children have been in settings that don't last very long, i.e. missions trips, camp counselor for a week, etc. So the effect they have on you and the effect you have on them, essentially is still part of an extendified (it should be a word) first-impression. Much much different than a long-term relationship. The fun can't last forever. I suppose that is the struggle of any parent, though.

God is good and faithful. I see him in so many aspects here. Mostly through the sweetness that comes from the children. Even if I yell at my kids or work them very hard, they still smile at me, hug me and love me. I just wonder if they can see any of Him through me.