It's 3pm on Sunday and our yard is full of children from the neighborhood. 2 Americans, 3 Finnish, 8 Papua New Guinean.
there's a line at the trampoline my neighbors have (we share a yard) there's a line at the basketball hoop, there's a line at the tree swing I made.
It is Sunday and our yard is chirping with activity. I enjoy all the children but there are times when you would like it to be still outside.
No blessing is without its price.
Yesterday Calvin gave a bag of his old clothes to a friend he made across the road. A young PNG boy. That boy left the bag out in a field, and when you leave things out, the general idea is that all can come take what they want.
Add to that there are two children with a slight reputation for taking more than their fair share, and you have a formula for upsetting the neighbors.
Today there was a knock at the door.
In Tok Pisin the man told me, that my son had come to his house, gone inside and accused his son of stealing.
The man was calm, we sat down and brought the children around and discussed this serious issue.
Apparently, the boy who took some clothes, assumed it was free for the taking, and once CAlvin handed over the clothes, it shouldn't have been our issue. But his friend came to him, explained that he never got any trousers, and Calvin got mad.
So mad he walked down the road to the boys house, went inside without permission and accused him of stealing.
So now I found myself sitting outside with this neighborhood man whom I only know a little, having a calm conversation, getting all the witness accounts (all the children weighed in) and we determined that there was a misunderstanding followed by a wrongful act on Calvin's part.
So Calvin and I went inside, and we talked about how it's not right to accuse people falsely, how to control temper, etc, and he went down the street this time to apologize.
IT's not that cut and dried, but that's what happened.
I found myself in a sort of kangaroo court, everyone was looking to me to resolve the issue, and I'm desperately trying to understand this super fast Tok Pisin. Thankfully, I held my own and it was resolve amiably.
I half admire Calvin's gumption, but I wish it hadn't resulted in a cross-cultural conflict.
So for those keeping score:
Number of cultural close-calls with the neighbors:
Calvin - 1 (trouser incident)
Sydney - 1 (watermelon incident)
As Kendal and I chatted this afternoon she noted, "Sometimes, parenting is exhausting". So true... so true.
Our kids are getting older, the parenting challenges are getting to be more and more unique.
Today my daughter decided to paint her bedroom floor in blue paint.
She thought it'd be fun.
IF you're praying for us, pray that we be given an extra amount of wisdom and patience regarding parenting, because these kids are REALLY keeping us on our toes these days.
