Mangooo

Sunday we had church in English at the Villa in the morning. One of the missionaries here, Champ, did the sermon. I loved it. It was a great message about how necessary it is for us to put others first and to be patient when living with so many people. He made a point that I had thought of the day before; there is no show on tv that puts 30+ people in one house and expects them to get along. There will have to be something very different going on in this house to ensure we all get along until the end of April. Champ kept going back to how we all have a choice. We can choose to be patient when our roommate is in the bathroom for too long, we can choose to be meek when one of the guys says something stupid, we can choose to be kind, we choose to forgive and we choose to love each other as much and more than we love ourselves and above all we have the choice to love God. Once our relationship with God is in order our relationships with each other will be better. We can call on him for help with our patience, kindness, and gentleness. 

So really the reason that you needed to know what the message was about is because I have a funny story to tell... don't I always? 

So by lunch time our lesson was being tested. Sundays are leftovers for lunch or we can go out if we want. I stayed here with a group and we decided we would go out for ice cream or something after. We ate lunch and Lydia said she was going to cut up a mango. There was about five of us students sitting at the table with her that she offered mango to. So she starts cutting it up and was really trying to get a feel for the proper technique to cut this mango. Lydia ended up with it pretty much in thirds and then a bunch of little scraps. Well the children of the missionaries caught wind of the lovely scent of fresh mango and descended on Lydia for a piece. The first kid that asked got a decent sized slice. The second little boy also got a slice. Then a little girl came up and asked for a piece and this is where it all went wrong. Lydia said what piece do you want. The little girl pointed to the one third that Lydia had not cut up into smaller pieces yet and Lydia handed it over. For the next eight months Lydia will not hear the end of it. The five of us sat and cried as the little girl walked away with the majority of the mango. The five of us were left to split about a third of the mango and chew on the pit. The jokes ranged from "hope I'm never starving in the desert with you if there is a child near by, we're all going to starve". And "if we are ever down to one chicken left I pray the little kid doesn't ask for the whole thing cause Lydia will be like sure we'll just eat the scraps and bones when you're done".

Moral of the story: we probably should have been more patient with Lydia and more generous with the kids, putting others before ourselves. It might have been more work but we always could have gone and cut up another mango. 

Love has no borders, 

- Rachel Martha