The attack of the Tamarindo tree

This morning John and I visited a little church in Tierra Blanca. I took along a Sunday School lesson. We had told there would be maybe 6 or 7 children and about that many adults. They don`t usually have Sunday School for children. They used to, and they would give the children something to drink and maybe a cookie as a treat every Sunday. Then a different church came to town and offered the children toys and clothes and food. So now the only children who come regularly are the seven children of one family.

Since they don`t have a classroom for the children, we took some chairs and a bench outside under a big tree. As I started teaching, two things happened. First, the three year old wandered off across the enclosed yard and second, other children started noticing what we were doing and started arriving, filling the chairs and bench, and then some. I didn`t worry too much about the three-year old, he seemed fine where he was . I could keep half an eye on him while I taught the lesson. I ended up with about 25 children, plus two ladies who came out of the house next door to the church and stood at a distance listening. I got into the story, when all of a sudden four or five little boys got up from their seats, and took off running across the yard.

It turned out that the little three year old had gone across the yard because there was a tamarindo tree full of fruit. (If you don't know what tamarindo is, I don`t know how to explain it exactly--it's a pod with sort of a jelly like stuff inside it. People make a drink out of it that is good for what ails you)

When the other little boys figured out what the three year old was doing--zoom, they were gone. It took a couple of minutes to get them back to their seats, convincing them that the fruit would still be there when the lesson was done.

So, I learned that I am not the most interesting teacher in the world. A tamarindo tree full of fruit can attack the interest level of the average little boy just by being there. They did come back though, and stayed to the end of the lesson. The kids loved coloring the picture I brought along, (the three year old even wandered back over to color), people seemed encouraged by our visit and one little girl brought me three tamarindo pods. It was a good morning.