carl turns 18!

thursday afternoon we had a park party for carl's 18th birthday. carl looks like he's about 12, but he's the oldest one. and the sweetest. he is respectful, compliant, loyal, and reliable. we sat in a circle and the kids were eating ice cream out of one big buckey--what we'd call a bucket--b/c we didn't have bowls or plates. everyone told their favorite thing about carl, and 9 out of 10 kids said "he is my best friend". the other kid who didn't say that said he liked carl's cap. it is a cool cap, i'll give him that. anyways, the kids used the adjectives i listed above to describe carl. here we are at the park eating ice cream:


then it suddenly became time to climb trees. for any of you who know much about me, you know this is one of my most favorite things to do. whenever i go to a new place, one of the first things i intentionally notice is where the good trees are to climb. i've had my eye on these, and the kids initiated the whole thing. so, here is ashwin in a tree:


and here is ashwin surfing down the tree:


and here is ashwin climbing up the tree to surf down it again (by the way, they were just basically letting the tree limbs catch them as they fell. it was much safer than it appears here. but i will say, it was a tall tree):


and finally, here i am on the very tip top of the tree. what kind of example am i? it was so fun, so i don't really care :)


our party ended, as all good parties do, with the local police coming and busting it up. however, this was not because we climbed the trees. actually, these trees are right outside the police station windows. the cops came b/c the kids were so hyped up on sugar and sweets that they were climbing on my car (not cool) but before i could pretend to control the situation, the police handled it. all this consisted of was them driving up, honking their horns at us, the kids scurrying off-waving to and slapping hands with the cops as they passed-and then escorting us to capricorn, a local township where we took one of the street ladies home. friendly law enforcement!

i had my first fight with one of the kids, gamieldien. he's got a big attitude and i don't handle that well. he's been told not to return to the center a few times because (a) he has a home and a mom who comes to find him each week, (b) he ignores our authority, and (c) he brings in lots of other "street kids" who really are just punks out on the street, causing trouble during the day and going home at night to mom's home-cooked meal and a nice warm bed. one of our rules is that the kids must truly be street kids to come and receive what we have to offer. we are limited as it is.
so, gamiedien started throwing his attitude around and i put my foot down. he got so mad that he cursed at me as i drove off. but my skin is thickening because I knew I had to let it go. It was hard to do. but anyways-pray for gamieldien.