Meet Melvi...

Melvi is 18 years old and her favourite colour is pink. She, like Irlanda, forms part of the threesome that is in seventh grade and attends a nearby public school. These three girls (I have yet to introduce the third) are inseparable. In the mornings they are the first to leave for school, as they have the farthest to go. When they return at lunch time, they always sit at their own table in the corner separate from the rest of the girls. After lunch they go to one of the classrooms at the centre along with their interpreter, Cecilia, and they work on their homework for a couple of hours or so. When they return to the dorms, they often still have more homework to do.

Melvi is from a small community/town in the department of Cochabamba about two hours or so from here. She doesn't often get to go and see her family, but she spends a lot of weekends at her aunt and uncle's house, who leave in the nearby town of Quillacollo.

Communication is always a bit of struggle between Melvi and I. Her signing tends to be very fast and abrupt, and I find her very difficult to understand. Often another one of the girls will have to step in and repeat what Melvi has just told me.

I feel like I don't have a lot to say about Melvi. She is probably one of the girls I have gotten to know the least, partly because she isn't around a lot between homework and her going away on weekends. Our struggles communicating and her being a little more standoffish than the rest of the girls doesn't help either, but she is a sweet girl, and the girls' dorm would not be the same with out her!

RANDOM INFO. (about my life here): We have several lemon trees on the property here at the centre. One evening the girls got permission to pick a bunch of lemons and take them to the dorm. These lemons are very interesting, because they look rather like oranges but taste like lemons! Life at the centre can be rather sad and bleak, and at the end of an ordinary drab day, we had a lemon party! It was amazing how something simple like a bunch of freshly picked lemons brightened up our day! We had so much fun eating lemons (with puckered faces) and making lemonade. It brought to mind the old saying: "When life gives you lemons--make lemonade!"

THANKSGIVING (Blessings):
-Melvi's life.
-God's grace and forgiveness in my life.
-Lemons!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
-Melvi's spiritual life (only God knows her heart, and if she has a genuine relationship with Him)
-The spiritual salvation of Melvi's family.
-I will be teaching the Bible lesson for the first time at the Thursday night meeting this week. Please pray that God would help me to communicate effectively, that I would put into practice and be an example of the lesson (I am teaching a lesson on love), and that the Holy Spirit would speak to the children through the lesson.
-Safety as I travel to Potosi (the city where I grew up) and back this next weekend (there have been a lot of bus accidents lately--like the one Irlanda's dad died in). I may also be taking Irlanda with me, so she can see her family.