POST by JAIRO: Discipline Dilemma

Jairito posing for a photograph in the BEAUTIFUL Ohio Valley

Hello my name is Jairito and I am going to share with you about the life of a friend.

My friend was really abused and beaten by his parents. One day at his house, his dad hit him because my friend had hit his sister. When his dad struck him, he hit him really hard and when his mum got home, his dad told her that my friend had hit his sister and then his mum beat him really hard as well.

One day my friend’s dad told him off for not behaving in the house and he hit him really hard once again. After he had been beaten a lot because he was not behaving, he started to behave more.

Then, after a few years, he became rebellious. He escaped from his house and made a collection of really bad friends. He also became addicted to many things. One day his parents found him smoking with his ‘friends’. His parents walked up to him and they beat the living daylights out of him once again.

His parents became frantic not knowing how to get their son to behave, and so his family and him went to church to pray for my friend and for all the bad things that he had done. Whilst they were praying for him, he was not behaving himself and when they got home they beat him again.

After being hit so much, it was in his mind that he would always get hit. He stopped caring altogether about how he behaved. Soon he was purple and red because they would hit him so much and so hard. His parents saw him and his terrible state, and they felt really bad and so they stopped hitting him and they began being to live a happier life.

This story was written by a Nicaraguan youth, and was voluntarily given to Capital on the Edge for publishing. The subject choice was his entirely. He has elected to write about his experiences for the glory of God and so that others may learn from his experiences. The translation of this work is performed voluntarily and not professionally, hence there may be some errors. Any decisive deviation from the text is in consultation with the author, and is done so to make clear the life events written about and to provide further information so that the story is more understandable.

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Jairito in travel-mode

hola mi nombre es jairito

 y les bengo a decir un poco de la vida de amigo

mi amigo sufre por maltrato y golpes de su mama y su papa y un dia en la casa

de el su mama y sus papas le pegaron por pegarle a su hermana y el papa le pego

muy duro y cuando llega la mama ala casa el papa le conto todo de que el le habia pegado

a su hermana y la mama le pego duro.

un dia su papa lo maltrato por portarse mal en su casa y el papa lo maltrato y le pego muy fuerte

por dos causa por pegarle a su hermana y por portarse mal en su casa y un dia se porto bien y siguio portandose bien.

y el se escapaba de su casa y el tenia malas amistades y el agarro muchos bisios y un dia su papa y mama lo hallaron fumando y con las mala amistades y cuando llego le pegaron muy fuerte y lo maltrataron.

y un dia fueron ala iglesia a horar por el y para que sus bisios se fueran y el se porto muy mal y termino el culto y cuando llegan ala casa le pegaron muy duro.

y despues de muchos transtorno de muchos golpes se le hisieron morados y rojos y el papa y su mama se arrepintieron y no le siguieron pegando mas y el queda muy feliz.

POST by LIZ: Oooh, I could Crush a Grape!

Elizabeth & Rene in downtown San Francisco

It is an incredible privilege to be touring California with my beautiful family,  which of course consists of Jed, my four precious ones and the eight wonderful lads whom God has put into our lives.  Our days are never monotonous; observing our engorged family soak in this surreal experience and growing more in God, brings a sense of contentment in my spirit.

Each and every one of my “children” have their own unique quirks. Political Correctness (PC) demands parents to say they treat all family members the same, but I personally find this to be highly unachievable.  Personality has a huge role to play and tends to eschew PC with great force. Honestly, while I strive to treat all the same, my daily interactions and methods of discipline with them all vary, due to ‘Personality’. 

While I love them all, Rene tends to have a special place in my heart.  He is young (15), passionate, impetuous, and majorly self-absorbed (like the majority of 15 year olds!)  Over the year I have known him, he and I have come a long way and we have had major collisions throughout the journey (some involving knives and others involving fists).

To let you in on a secret - he almost didn’t make the tour due to his inflated attitude that totally clashed with mine! But he made it on the California tour by a hanging thread, and certainly brings  vibrancy to the group.  

When we were in Nicaragua, waiting to submit passports, the line was long, the day was hot, and it seemed like days were being sucked out of our lives.  After three hours of moving at a snail’s pace towards the building which  would provide the precious document, lunch was overdue and we were fading away... 

“I’ll just run and grab us all something to eat,” I said trying to slip away quietly, but they all wanted to come with me for the adventure. So, Stivey and Eric held our queue positions, while the rest of us went to find food.  “How about McDonalds?” Rene quickly suggested, but at $6 per person, this was way out of our lunch budget, which was $12.50 for our entire group. Like a mother hen with chicks in tow, we made our way to the grocery store. 

“No Liz” Rene whined, wiggling a can of red bull in my face while I grabbed a pack of plastic cups and a couple of 3 litre water bottles.   

I expertly dodged the two-cm-from-my-face, visual requests for cans, pks of chips, and chocolate, as I swooped in and grabbed a cooked chook and some freshly baked rolls.      

“Pleeeeease...” Rene requested, with pitiful eyes that seemed bigger and more innocent than Puss-in-Boots’, a basket of fruit.  “Not today, fruit is expensive and right now we don’t have the money for this,”  but that wasn’t enough... Beycker, Jonny and Rene started to steal and eat the grapes and caused a riot – I stopped them, told them how utterly embarrassed I was of their rude behaviour and explained that they would get NOTHING if this behaviour continued...  This seemed to verbally slap Beycker and Jonny back into civility but Rene was persistent. 

As we left the fruit’n’veg section, and made our way towards the check-out, via aisle four, I noticed Rene munching on grapes while hosting a bunch in his hand.

“Rene, I said No more, grapes are really expensive and when you eat them like this without paying for them it’s called stealing!...” but he cut in my words stating he was going to buy them.

Knowing full well his personal budget, I stressed once again that I was not okay about him stealing, and that I would not be buying the grapes for him or anyone today.  But he stressed that he was paying and promised not to eat another grape until after paying.

Putting the cups, water, chicken and bread on the moving belt, Jonny’s eyes moved side ways towards the snickers. He then grinned as my eyes narrowed and my face indicated “not on your life!”

As the checker started scanning, I noticed the now hot and sweaty, ‘we’ve-been-in-Rene’s-hands’ grapes next to the bag of rolls.  All the boys had seen this and were silently watching for my reaction. 

Fearing the last minute requests for craved items from the other boys if I allowed the grapes to pass, I picked up a divider and placed it between the rolls and the grapes. Rene grinned whilst asking, “Please Liz?”  He looked at me, the check out chick looked at me, the other lads’ eyes were darting from the grapes to Rene, to me.  But I ignored Rene’s pleading and pulled out the cash from my pocket, handing it to the cashier, “Just these items thanks.” I cooed.

We picked up the bags and stood in a line entertained by the thought of Rene’s next reaction.  Jonny and Beycker chuckled while Rene fumbled in his pocket for loose cordabas. 

“That will be 23 cords please,” the woman at the teller said after scanning the forbidden fruit.

”WHAT?” Rene retorted, “That’s a rip off- 23 cords for a just a handful of grapes!”  

Rene looked at his treasure, then requested for the guys to lend him C$13. None of them had a cord... “Liz, can you lend me C$13?”  But I just smiled and shook my head. 

The lads couldn’t control themselves and burst out laughing, as Rene had to put the grapes to the side and walk away from the till.  Rene looked at me, I looked at him and we both started laughing which made everyone laugh harder.