of spit and spankings

We finished off our time in Dhaka and headed back to the orphanage this last Friday. Ryan and I watched April Showers and Push on his laptop. April Showers is a heavy movie that chronicles the lives of students that have just survived a school shooting. It really made me think about the people I love most in this world and what would happen if I never got to say goodbye or that I love them again. In case I don't say it enough, ami tomake bhalobashi, I love you.

Saturday brought another Sabbath School lesson based on the second commandment. I feel like I'm caught in the struggle of living my faith outloud and not making any extremist Muslim's mad. I've settled on showing people the love of Jesus through my actions and not my words. We've been doing a Branch Sabbath School (at the Bangla Hope's village school) and usually a bunch of mothers come along with their kids. I took time to sit with them and use my little Bangla to keep up a conversation with them. I even got to hold a tiny month-old baby that was so adorable...

Yesterday was another holiday in Bangladesh. Don't ask me why, but they have two Veteran's Day's, one yesterday and one way back in December (I remember seeing the parades when we dropped Elliot off at the airport when she went to Spain). Thus, I used the day to clean our disheveled room, do some much needed laundry, and study for a bit. I also took a nap because Dhaka really seems to drain my energy--I went to sleep at 9pm the night before and woke up at 8am still tired. Go figure.

and tonight... Well tonight was tough. I've never experienced anything like it in my life. I had just finished having a really uplifting and encouraging talk with two of the Bangla Hope board members that are visiting and headed to the orphanage to say goodnight. Almost every night, I've gone into the boys' room to sing to them, then give them all kisses goodnight. Tonight as no exception.

I have no idea what happened. Ryan was just finishing telling a story and on his way out he told me that little Mikey had been naughty, earning him a couple spanks on the hand. I thought everything was fine though, finished singing two songs, then went around to say goodnight. Luke started crying and after investigating, I found out Danny had stolen his slice of lime. This really is no big deal because all the kids get a piece every night after dinner... Why he made it a big deal I don't know. Anyways, I could have spanked him (as Caleb in the next bed was encouraging me to do lol) but I used a different approach. Danny is such a smart little boy and I smiled as I encouraged him to do the right thing. I tried to reason with him, yet I was alone in the room with no one to translate for me.

He just stared at me, not saying a word. I got Luke to say please but Danny didn't budge. I ended up prying the lime out of his hand and giving it to Luke. Danny dove into the corner of his bed, sobbing. Wow. Okay so that was the first one.

There was a misunderstanding in the bed below next. I thought David was trying to steal Andrew's blanket so I tried to get little crying David into bed. Then I was told by Caleb (still doing his best to translate for me) that Andrew had taken two blankets so David didn't get one. So I pulled David's blanket out from under Andrew, and sent David to his bed after doing my best to scold Andrew (he's too young to understand English...). Two down, one to go.

I continued going to each bed, giving kisses and saying goodnight. I made a special note to stop at Danny's bed to let him know that while he was being naughty, I still loved him. The next couple beds were fine until I got to Johnny's.

[A little background on Johnny. He has epilepsy and we just found out that the nurse here told the caregivers and children basically to let Johnny to get away with anything he wants because he's sick. Thus, he's being running rampant and we're having a hard time calming him down.]

And we're back in. I came to Johnny's bed and said goodnight. He came to the end of the bed and started spouting off in Bangla. I had no idea what he said to me so I was about to move on, until Caleb piped up from the other side of the room and told me that Johnny was saying very bad and naughty words. Johnny just glared at me. I literally have NO idea what happened--I hadn't even hardly spoken to the kid since getting in the room... So I asked him what he said, then he spouted off again.

He spat in my face.

I was stunned. I climbed up and gave him a spanking. He was still saying bad words to me and when I asked him again what he said, he spat in my face. Again. From about a foot and a half away.

I climbed up again and pulled him down from his bed as he kicked and made a commotion. I took him outside and gave him a spanking on his bare bottom after doing my best to explain why he was getting spanked. I've seen Johnny made before but I've never seen him look so absolutely venomous before. I was shaking. I have NO idea what got into him!

It was awful. I had no idea what to do. I've never been spat in the face before, let alone by a 6yr old.

Honestly, I'm officially scared to be a parent. What do you do with a child that doesn't care about discipline? Just that vicious look is enough to say I hope I get all girls... Boys.

ami tomake bhalobashi