Glimmers
A really neat thing happened while playing with kids at Kalinga today. There are two girls Alma and Mary Rose who are about 16. They’re very withdrawn and don’t interact with other kids. They usually cling to the houseparents or sit on the sidelines and watch, at least Alma always did. Mary Rose appeared just last week; her family asked her to be allowed to stay at Kalinga, although we have no treatment or psychiatric consultants or anything, just rest and pray and be with loving people is all that can be done in this situation.
The kids were playing jumprope. It’s very infectious fun, even the houseparents love jumprope. For some reason it’s very nonthreatening and kids don’t seem to feel bad if they miss or don’t do well. However, I’ve only been able to coax Alma into playing once before. She came out to watch with Mary Rose. Interesting that a very withdrawn kid would extend herself to another withdrawn kid who is new and even more severely withdrawn, right?
Surprisingly, Alma came to take a turn. Then Mary Rose finally came too and jumped a few times. It’s a huge break through for her to even get out of her chair, so maybe something is happening behind the pretty frozen mask.
This sounds very small but it was huge to us, because maybe Mary Rose can return to being normal without shrinks or meds. Just playing and being with us?
I let the kids play a long time and then sat them on their magic carpet. Some university students had come for their afternoon service with the kids. They gathered around and we sang Raindrops on Roses. All the little kids conked out on the mat on the floor. I felt like I really was in the Sound of Music. It was a strange moment, peaceful and really beautiful to see normally wound-up kids falling asleep to that song. Maybe there is hope that we can do something here.
