"I have ninja skills and I am not afraid to use them!"

I continue to be humbled by the people here.

Today, Chris, Alex and I were tasked with transporting the Clavinova, a glorified electric keyboard, to the Reyes family's home.  What ensued was that Chris, Alex, Rodrigo and Jose, the two oldest boys (12 and 10, respectively), were heaving the keyboard into the back of our van, while I supervised Maria and Jesus (8 and 7) in the church van, waiting to leave.  Estela, their mom, was supervising the movement of the piano.

A suspicious man appeared in the church parking lot, in the midst of all of this.  Maria felt compelled to get out of the van, but I ushered her back in.  I told her that she needed to stay in the van, and I had Jesus lock the doors in case I needed to close them in to protect them from the man.  Maria was having none of this, however.

"The most important thing to me right now is that you are safe," I told her.

"I have ninja skills and I am not afraid to use them!" exclaimed Jesus.

Everyone was fine - Chris swooped in and redirected the man away from the church van.  We arrived safely at the Reyes family home, and I brought Maria and Jesus upstairs while everyone else brought the keyboard in.  The kids were all so proud to show us their house, and I was so excited to see it.  We helped them move in in November, and it was wonderful to see them having settled into their new home.  It was also eye opening.  Rodrigo and Jose sleep on the couch in the living room, and Maria and Jesus share a room with Estela.  It's really a two person apartment, and somehow it's become a five person home.  As small as our house feels (which is quite often), it's so much more than what all five of them have.  I have my own room.  Estela doesn't even have her own room.  She's a rock, Estela.  I would have gone crazy by now...

With the piano successfully moved, Rodrigo turned to me and asked, "Miss Rachel, now that we have a piano, will you teach me?"

"I could certainly teach you, but maybe we can talk to Ms. Kisada about the Friends of Music program, so that you could get a real piano teacher."

"Okay."

Then, later, I returned to Estela's bedroom, which has become home to the piano, in addition to three people.  Jose was sitting at the piano.

"I love this piano with all my heart."  I had never heard anything more genuine in my entire life.  I could have cried.

As we both headed toward the kitchen/living room/Rodrigo and Jose's room, I mentioned to Jose, "Maybe now that you have a piano, you can get a real piano teacher."

"But you're my real piano teacher!"

"You could get a better piano teacher."

"But you're a better piano teacher!"

"Well, then maybe you could get two piano teachers."

Jose Reyes thinks that I am a good piano teacher.  We validate each other.  It reminds me of a bit of Teilhard de Chardin that I love: "We are one, after all, you and I, together we will suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other."

Peace and all good,
Rachel