A Day With The Boys

October 11, 2012

Isaac playing with his cars.

On my way back to my room once I was done teaching today I glanced in on the little boys room and found their caregiver, Meloti, asleep on the bed and the boys running around with their shirts off and of course Nathan was the opposite and had no pants on...as always. I whispered to them to put their clothes on and come outside. I took them into the courtyard with a bag full of their cars and sat them down on the cement pathway to play. It was the perfect time, mid-afternoon and the rest of the children were still in school. They giggled and made car sounds with their voices. Isaac sat quietly on the cement playing with his car while Jacob babbled on in the only way he knows how with high-pitched exclamations made in Bangla with that cheeky grin of his. Nathan and Levi were constantly coming over to me to show me their cars while Jamie and Noah sat off to the side and vroomed their cars along the sidewalk towards the other boys. This age for boys is my favorite (2-5); they are happy to play with simple things or just sit on your lap and they listen very well (at least these boys do, except Nathan can never manage to keep his pants on for an entire afternoon...haha).

After we put the cars away, Jacob and Isaac grabbed my hands and as always Levi came running up wanting to hold onto me as well, so i scooped him up onto my shoulders as he squealed with delight and took the boys on a walk around the campus to see the cows and the kitchen ladies cutting garlic.

Levi always reminds me of a little frog when he sits like this.

Sitting between Isaac and Jacob during dinner, I noticed that while Jacob was happily chowing down on his 2nd bowl of curry and rice, Isaac had hardly touched his. Meloti told me Isaac doesn't like curry very much. This was a new concept to me: a Bengali who doesn't like curry, that's a shocker! Filling Isaac's bowl with white rice, he began to eat. I sat back down and watched the other boys eat. Even when he is sitting cross-legged, Levi has perfect posture when he eats. Nathan zones out when given food and Jamie eats so fast! Noah has to be reminded to keep eating and Jacob is the consistent mouth-shoveler while mid-bite trying to teach me Bangla words for food even though he doesn't know very much English! What a character! And he is only 5 years old!

These little boys are so easy to be around. Their relationship with me doesn't hinge on the facts of how much I talk to them or how much time is spent with them. All they want from me is to hold them in my lap whenever I am around. Again, they strike me with little pictures of Jesus' character and his unconditional (and I'm using this in its fullest sense) love for us and how he just wants to be with us.