Highway bus again, heading to Yokohama. The roadsides are mostly clogged with weeds, but a few places here and there have trimmed hedges and cleaned flowerbeds. It's just not the highest priority this year.
The highlights of my week are simple.
Rolling a ball to a toddler, who wandered off at one point, and ending up playing catch with her mom and her grandma instead. The giggles were a nice touch.
Zeroing in on the shy kids and using my little Tickle Bug puppet to steal a smile or two. Tickle Bug is very bashful and needs a lot of reassurance to meet a new friend. (It's OK, sister won't hurt you, you'll see. Go on, say hello.)
Being the shooting target or the monster or the available lap for three wild little boys running all over the room. Giving one of them a plastic bag to put his fifteen paper airplanes into, so he could play airport at home.
Helping kids choose from the kid's bikes. Teasing an already lanky fifth grader that he'll outgrow his new bike in about three weeks. Getting happy grins when I ask each kid to promise me they'll outplay the kid who owned the bike before.
Seeing the scared, sad little seventh grade girl, who wouldn't go to school this term, start to smile a little.
Grandma.
Being able to just plain worship in Japanese without searching for words. Took a month and a half to get my language solid enough to let my heart fly. It flew.
There are lowlights too.
A photo of a road running into the sea. "There used to be an entire neighborhood where that sea is. I lived there. There's nothing left."
The daily contrast between life as usual in the grocery store around the corner, and the destitute people I meet in the assistance center. It's a bit jarring.
Some of the people coming for assistance are rather abrupt and demanding. There's no real way to sort the rude from the outspoken from the desperate.
Some things disappear. We try not to assume the worst. It's an ask-and-receive environment. I wish everyone understood that.
Some days are so people-filled that I retreat to the sleeping quarters for a while after the assistance center closes.
I'm heading for a break thinking I'm not all that tired this time, and my silly body keeps falling asleep every few minutes on the bus. Oops. Maybe I should have left a teeny bit earlier in the day after all.
Overall...
God calls us living stones being built into a building. That includes edges getting rubbed the wrong way now and then. Some edges more than others. But the work continues, and you'd have thought unloading trucks was a party game if you'd seen us this morning.
It's been six weeks since I got here. From where I sit, Life seems to be going strong. What do you see?
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