Let the little children come

Padre Hipólito picked me up at 8:30 this morning, and we were off to the church for the Saturday catechism class. Along the way we picked up Doña Adela, a retired teacher who is the catechism instructor.

Well, if you think this blog is boring, consider that there are many, many other things on the internet that are either fascinating or useful, or maybe both. For example: I was able to discover Spanish language Christian Education resources. Blessedly, they included a sort of a script for the instructor to read, which is what I did. With my own embellishments, of course. Those from St. Peter's who have been to our 'Wiggle and Worship' would have recognized the format. I had brought with me three new boxes of 64 crayons, and began to show them different crayons, asking what color the crayons were.

Except that I chose only green crayons -- there were at least seven different shades. And I went through a sort of 1 Corinthians 12 paraphrase -- "If this one is green, how can this other one also be green?" and "What fun would this box of crayons be if all of the crayons were ONLY GREEN."

Segue into James and tomorrow's lesson about not showing favoritism to the rich. Treating all people the same. Then into La regla de oro: Spanish for 'the Golden rule.' Ama a tu projimo como te amas a ti mismo. Or something like that. I had the children repeat it about 800 times, which did NOT bore them, since rote learning still seems to be an acceptable pedagogical technique down here.

Finally, I asked about 7 kids to stand in front -- short and tall, younger and older, with dark skin and light skin, boy and girls. And I asked that Who is wearing a pink blouse?" Why, her blouse is different than everyone else's!!! Can she still be a child of God? Yes...because that's what we all have in common. We all fit together like the crayons in the box. All different, all beautiful, each one necessary to make the whole picture.

A reasonably good object lesson, except for the fact that everyone has there own favorite color, which seems to undermine James' notion of showing no favoritism. Fortunately our group theological reflection didn't get that sophisticated this morning, so I don't think I did too much damage to their spiritual development. Anyway, the loved the idea of coloring -- even the oldest. More on that later.

When I finished, Doña Adela led them in singing. I have found that Dominicans love to sing -- from the youngest to the oldest, especially if the song involves clapping, motions, and percussion instruments. I have a few ideas about songs to teach the congregation (and Wiggle and Worship). It was lively and fun.

Finally we went upstairs to the little classrooms off the parish hall -- older kids (i.e. those who could read) and younger separated into two groups. I said they loved the idea of coloring, and when I emphasized that the people pictured needed to have different colored clothing, different colored skin, and different colored hair, they took me quite literally. So a charming little cartoon of children sharing their toys featured little tots with green, blue, and pink hair. And I did not know the word in Spanish for 'punker.' Once again my limited language skills failed me.

Lunch is always part of the program, and there was a hearty meal of Chicken, rice, and beans. I did not hear any whining about 'I don't like this...' I'm sure it was because for some of them this was the only decent meal they would be getting all day. Or maybe all weekend.


Hasta Luego.