I'm gonna go out of chronological order and start with where I went last weekend, while it's fresh. My roommate and I went to Antioch. In the city where followers of Jesus were first called Christians, about 100 women gathered to fellowship and learn more about worship. My roommate and I had the privilege of watching a few children. There were about 10-15 children, and 5 of us adults looking after them, not a bad ratio. The challenge was that these were all Turkish children. Now, people ask me sometimes if I like children. On some level, I think I do, but I haven't had any sort of great amount of interaction with them since I was in high school, so mostly children just confuse me. I have no idea what to expect of them, and it makes it more confusing when what women expect of their own children seems to vary widely from family to family. I like things that are black and white. Child care is not. So I was left mostly clueless when I arrived Friday and looked at the group of 10-15 Turkish children I was to be partially responsible for.
Overall, the weekend was about as tiring as I expected, but a lot more fun. I played soccer, stenciled Noah's ark, helped look for candy, and kissed boo-boos. I handed legos to 2-year-olds and listened to 8-year-olds read, or pretend to read. (One of the girls was holding a book about a scuba diver and "read" to me, "And Jesus said, everyone stop smoking and drink water.") I watched the Land Before Time in Turkish and spun the wheel for Twister. Of course there were also times when I had to set boundaries and tell kids to share, but every mother knows that.
And as a bonus, I got to see a bit of the fascinating modern-day Antioch, and even was given a balloon at our favorite chicken-wrap restaurant (because we went there each of the 3 days we were there!)
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