Housemates

I am so blessed to have four wonderful friends to share my daily joys and struggles here.

Joy is 24, from Argentinia, and is my bunkmate.  She is full of energy, ideas and love.  To watch her enteract with a disabled friend in our neighborhood is to watch someone comunicate and love much like how I imagine Mother Teresa used to love.  She is in many ways my teacher, teaching me how to dress, reminding me to pray before each visit and helping me do my exercised diligently.  She is very generous with all of her personal posessions, almost completely unattached to the things which she owns. She is brights and fun to be with, loves to dance and loves music.  And she loves to laugh.  Twice in the last week we have laughed, on the floor of our room, so hard that my sides hurt.

Grace is in her late 40s and from Brazil.  She is dedicated her like to Heart´s Home for the rest of her life.  She is  like my mother here.  I go to her for questions and she patiently, meekly answers.  She is very unselfish and has a servant´s heart.  Often she does the little things around the house which need to be done ... washing or finishing my cleaning, without being asked.  She also loves to laugh and to laugh heartily.  I enjoy very much our evening tea after dinner. It is a time to chat about anything or nothing before bed.

Padrito is a 40 year old french priest who is also a permanent member of Heart´s Home.  He is full of wisdom. Often his homily seems to be specifically written for my heart that day.  He loves the children and is very much a child himself!  He laughs with his eyes as much as his voice.  He enjoys cracking dry jokes and speaking in english.  However his confusion of english words often makes us both laugh.  I am not familiar with ¨Rebel without Cows¨, but do know of ¨Rebel without a Cause¨.  Another fun switch was ¨witch¨ and ¨wish¨.  As I help him with english, he helps me, very patiently, with my poor spanish.  He also takes care of the difficult jobs around the house, like cutting trees and cleaning the inside the water tank of our washing area.

St. Nic is in his late 30s and also from France.  He has also dedicated his life as a Heart´s Home volunteer. The children love it when he visits.  Like your favorite grandfather, he can make his face do things which make them explode with laughter.  He helps them touch the roof and throws them in the air as they reach for the sky.  He is our handyman around the house.  And like Padrito, he plays the guitar and sings.  He is passionate about reach people through online media and has a gift for this.  He enjoys walking briskly through the streets.  And thankfully, he helps me learn the culture here - having lived in the US, he understands well my own culture and thus the struggles to adjust to my new neighborhood.