Warrior Kate, the spider killer

March 11

One thing that I have been thinking about lately is what the kids I help take care of will be like when they grow up. I am really scared for them. There is one boy, Johnny who I play with almost every day (when I am at the church). Ironically, he is the stubborn little boy who behaved really badly when I did childcare for the bible study. Anyway, I am so scared that growing up in the neighborhood he does, that he will rebel against his parents (he has a rebellious attitude) and start to sell or use drugs. As I get to know the kids I just am so worried about them. They are so smart and clever, and many of them have parents who are involved in the church and really love them. Take Johnny as an example. His dad works at an auto repair shop, his mom helps out at the church. His family lives on church property. But there are drug dealers who live down the street. He might go to school with their kids. If something happens and he breaks away from his parents, He doesn't have another church to turn to. He could make more money selling drugs. It could be a very tempting option for him. As I learn more about the reality of La Tabla, I am more and more worried about what will happen to the people I care about here.

March 12

I think I should give an update on the food. The food has gotten a lot better (or maybe I have gotten used to it) and I eat more than I did the first week though I still have not quite managed to eat enough to satisfy Bella Flor. I am on what I would describe as the Rice-and-beans-all-day-every-day diet. Actually it's not quite that bad but I would say I eat some form of rice and beans at least twice a day. The other staples are bread and coffee (without cream but with sugar). The bread they get fresh, almost every day in baguette form. The one thing I with the ate more of was fruit. I love fruit (and mangoes hold a special place in my heart) and I thought that here they would just eat fruit all the time (it makes perfect sense to me) because they produce so much fruit here and there are stands all over that sell it but unfortunately, they don't eat much more fruit than most people do at home. Bummer.

March 13

Today has been eventful. Pura Vida Missions brought a group from Plain City today and it was neat to talk to people from close to home. Actually, a second cousin of mine was there. I don't see a lot of my more distant relations (or even some of my close ones- I have only visited with one of my grandparents in the past two years) and I haven't been to a family reunion in years so it was kind of cool to talk to her again. I did more manual labor and tried to work with a pick-ax (I was terrible at it!) and so right now, I am so tired!

Gloria came with the group and she asked Bella Flor to talk about some of the history of the church. Here is some of what she mentioned: Bella Flor started the church 12 years ago. back then, La Tabla was worse off than it is now and there was more drugs. Drugs is easiest way to make money in La Tabla and it is hard for people to stuggle to get a good, normal job and to continue to keep that job once they get it because people make more money faster when they sell drugs. When Bella Flor started out, she didn't have the support of her husband or her kids but she felt very strongly that this was where God wanted her. Many times she didn't have money for the church or her family and herself. It's kind of a work in progress but her family started to support her and she also has gotten assistance from a few organizations. There is one organization that supplies food so she can serve food to kids and to families that need it, and another helped her get a computer lab to help children learn. One thing that is hurtful to the kids is that many parents don't place much value in a good education and don't support them very much. Bella Flor is trying to change that mentality. Also, she tries to help teenage girls who have babies because often father has abandoned them and the don't have the means to take care of their child. She tries to get women to marry before they have kids because it offers them protection and their children. Bella Flor has seminars for preventing domestic and child abuse. She also has campaigns where she gets people to come in and take care of people's health and hygiene. People have their eyes checked, teeth cleaned, even their hair cut! Last year there was a lot of flooding. The creek basically turned into a river and caused a lot of damage. Bella Flor said that when you looked down the river, you could see big trees floating down and their roots had big clumps of dirt that got washed down as well. Even a couple houses got washed out. When that happened, a bunch of people feared that church would leave. Bella Flor said this made her feel good to have to reassure them that the church wasn't going anywhere, it made her feel needed. She has been able to withstand a lot, and she has even made a sort of truce with the drug dealers - she leaves them alone and they leave her alone. She feels the God wants her there and even when there were terrible things happening, she felt God's presence. Because of this, she named the church Jehova Shama which means God is here in Hebrew.

Hearing all of this amazed me. Bella Flor has such strength! I have had a hard time with the short amount of time I have been here and she has withstood so much. She is such an amazing woman! She risked everything for this church and she has helped so many people. She has helped the whole neighborhood. Her life is like the the kind of lives that movies are based on. Seriously, she has my total admiration.

Okay, so a quick little side story (sorry if I have ruined my meaningful mood). I am in the middle of writing this journal when I glance to my left and on the wall, is a HUGE spider! It wasn't as big as the one I talked about earlier, but by my standards, it was pretty big. so I quickly jump up get my camera (of course) take a picture, and then I realize, I am home alone. There is no one to help me defeat this beast, I have no one to turn to. I AM HOME ALONE WITH A HUGE SPIDER!!! I probably would have let it go (as I said before, I am fine as long a they aren't going to touch me) but it was climbing down the wall, not up and it was heading to it's right (my left) right towards my stuff (if it hangs out there, it significantly increases the chance that we would touch). It started to crawl, so I banged the wall (with Bellita's flip flop- my best weapon against spider attacks) so it would stop crawling, which it did and we kind of stood there at a stand still for about 7-ish minutes and then it started to crawl again. I banged the wall. This didn't work, the spider kept going. I knew what I had to do. I counted to five (out loud) and at five I smashed, as hard as I could (I did not want to do it again) and killed it.
Kate-1 Spider-0