Lights, camera, action! Leydy, as we affectionately call her
(pronounced like the English “lady”) is our shining star, our concert vocalist,
our award-winning actress, and the life of the party that is 2nd
grade, and a day without her is like a day without the sun’s warm rays. She comes into school every day with a tight
hug, a wide smile and beautiful flowers for me.
She is a lover through and through, and meets the day and all of those
around her with an open heart, despite how difficult yesterday may have been. She is sugar and spice and everything nice
and 100% girly-girl.
Leydy was one of the first children I met on our visit to
her village Pancho Mateo before I began teaching her in first grade last
year. She, Wilson, and Manuela were to
be my students and I soaked up our first interactions like a sponge. Of all the little ones parading around us,
Leydy became attached literally and emotionally within a very short period of
time and wouldn’t let go of my hand the entire visit!
Teaching her, mentoring her, discipling her, and building a
relationship with her over this past year and two months has been rewarding,
challenging, adventuresome, and hilarious.
Like most of the other students in my class, she is packed full of
personality, almost bursting with it, as if it can’t all be contained in her
tiny little body. She struggles some
academically, mostly due to her difficulty with concentration. The little joy and entertainment she finds in
everything around her can make it hard to focus on lessons. But the Lord has been faithful in the
classroom and it is evident that her learning is important to Him as we have
seen much progress lately. She and
another new student have been given the opportunity to be pulled out of whole
group instruction to practice specific academic concepts with Profe Imani, and
Leydy has even been able to help that new student complete various exercises! Her “spiciness” can sometimes be manifest as
defiance to authority, as she is very self-aware and extremely passionate, but
the Lord is softening that tendency too, and after prayer and much self-reflection,
her repentance in the end is impacting and sincere. We could all stand to learn to repent as she
repents.
Mari Leydy is a very beautiful little girl, taking after her
Haitian mother Katerine (“Kati” – we’re all about nicknames here!). Her older brother Miguel Angel (“Migue”) is
in 3rd grade with Profe Johan and little Carlos Miguel is in Pre-K 4
with Profe Bella. Katerine’s husband, a
Dominican named Miguel (“Miguelito” o “Pilu”) owns a barber shop in Pancho
Mateo and Katerine stays busy cleaning, cooking, working at the Banca, and
taking care of those three high-energy kiddos.
The Garcia family is incredibly special to us and we are so very
thankful that God brought them to Makarios years ago.
If I’m one day called to leave this beautiful place and
teach other children somewhere else, I will miss so very much about Leydy
including her many songs that she sings consciously and unconsciously, her
contagious laugh, her spontaneous applause when she approves of a lesson I
teach in class and her heartfelt, crocodile tears. She has single-handedly made me excited to
someday be the mother of a little girly-girl.
In the above picture, Leydy is holding a shiny star that was
her costume and part in our end-of-year play that we put on for the parents in
May. Mostly people would choose to
present the story Jesus’s birth at Christmas, but our second grade class felt
it was something worth celebrating year-round and acted it out for the May
program. Leydy fittingly played the part
of the star that led the wise men to Jesus and gave an unforgettable
performance, proudly holding the star over her head and shouting to them “Come
ON! Follow me, he’s over HERE!” I love Leydy very much and would appreciate
your continued prayers for our little star – specifically for her academic
advancement and for God to work in the lives of her family members. If you would like to support my work teaching
Leydy, please click on the following link to give a tax-deductible one-time
donation or to become a monthly supporter:
https://secure.etransfer.com/
https://secure.etransfer.com/
