Be Careful What You Teach Your Kids!

December 3, 2009
Serving and learning to serve. This story isn’t about my serving, more about the kids serving and how they’re learning to serve! So, the other day, Rami, Isha and I were out looking for a new Kotessera for me to wear to our anniversary party next week (I guess it’s a pretty big deal, and my only Kotessera that still fits is my one from school, which the girls would not dare let me wear to this party!). So, we went from tailor to tailor, looking for the perfect one. This one is too gaudy, that one is too expensive. This one has too much around the neckline, that one is too thin. And so on and so forth. Isha found hers at the first shop, but I didn’t want to spend a lot on mine, and I wanted to like it a lot. It didn’t seem like too much to ask for!

And then, we found it. The perfect Kotessera for me. The girls immediately stated that I had to get it, and I promptly agreed :). So, I bought it, and then we had to take it to another tailor to have it sewn (Kotessera’s come with three pieces: the material for the top, a complementing material for the big baggy pants, and then a scarf thing; the tailor just cuts it to your size and sews the pieces together for $2-3. amazing, right?!). So, we arrive at the tailor that Aunty and Uncle use. He’s a man from the church, and he made my first Kotessera. Well, we give him the Kotessera material, and ask him if he can finish it by Monday, which he says won’t be a problem.

Then comes the serving. Ready to leave, I had my bag ready and was about to head out the door, when the girls said, “Come on sister! We’re going to help him for a little bit.” Totally confused, I followed them outside, with a big blanket and soap in tow. The girls quickly explained that he needed help washing this blanket because he wasn’t going to have time to wash it. So, we settled into washing it, and Rami said, “See, we have to serve him because he’s part of the family of God and he doesn’t have anyone to help him!” Amazed at her response, I agreed, and we scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed and rinsed this big blanket for about 30 minutes until it was clean. Never once did I hear either girl complain, at least in English! But I’m pretty sure they weren’t complaining in Nepali either...

Story 2. Our anniversary party is next week, and it’s going to be a huge deal. Members of Parliament are invited, and will probably come, along with pastors from all over Kathmandu and church members and the kids’ principal and friends and so many more! So, the “yard” here is in no way big enough to accommodate all the people, so Uncle decided to have it in the vacant lot next to the house. Problem being vacant means local dump in Nepal. Trash everywhere. Not to mention the land mines deposited all over the grass, waiting for some unsuspecting child to come step in them and bring that lovely smell with them for the rest of the day!

Well, it had to be cleaned, so Tuesday after school, the boys tromped out with these short rounded machete looking knives to cut the grass and surprising smiles on their faces. So, I grabbed as many plastic shopping bags as I could find and headed out to make a game of this grizzly task. So, I gave the boys bags, and we chose a central location as the location of our future trash bonfire. And then we raced to see who could collect and dump the most bags of trash on the pile. Over and over again our bags filled with empty shampoo packets, broken glass bottles, old animal skulls, small scraps of paper, lonely socks, and just about everything else you can think of (and probably a lot of what you wouldn’t think of)! And then to the bonfire pile we’d race, dumping the sack and heading out to do it again. Most of the boys got 15-20 bags of trash collected when all was said and done!

Relieved to be finished and amazed at the transformation in the field, I was all ready to drop a flaming match onto this pile of junkyard treasures when Laxman ruined everything. “Sister, we need to burn it over there. Not here. It will leave a burn mark.” “Laxman!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US THIS WHEN WE STARTED?!” “I didn’t think of it until now!” Our huge pile, which was up to my neck, far beyond the height of Raju, now had to be moved about 50 yards away.

I looked around at the other burn spots decorating the ground like black ornaments on a Christmas tree and was about to say “what’s one more black circle?” when Rajkumar beat me to the punch. “Well, we’re supposed to do everything without complaining and arguing, right?” A verse that I’ve been teaching the kids. Thrown right back in my face with a smile and laughter. And so I let out a laugh and said, “Ok, Rajkumar, you’re absolutely right, let’s move it!” So we found these big old bags and used them as small tarps and would pile the trash on, use 2-3 people to carry it over to the new location, and then back to collect more trash.

Finally, about 30 minutes later, we finished once again, and lit the fire. I’ve never been so glad to see a fire burn. Probably killed a few thousand of my brain cells with all the plastics and such in the mix, but hey, I learned to do everything, even moving a pile of bones, plastic and all other wastes without complaining. Be careful what you teach kids- they just might learn it and use it on you!