Tour de Mi Lugar

September 29, 2022

Driving by, it is easy to miss Familia Feliz unless you’re really looking. Only a small sign along the highway would even tip you off that we’re here. Assuming you catch the turn, I hope you arrive at sunrise. I hope you get to see the rosy gleams filter through the jungle and light the tin roofs on fire before beginning to warm the red bricks that make up our three elementary school buildings. My personal favorite holds my 3rd and 4th-grade classroom. My classroom is the size of my dorm room at home with one window’s worth of light flooding the white walls and 6 little desks. Well, the walls used to be white, but now they contain science posters, butterflies, and a couple of clocks-- the full rainbow of 3rd-grade education.

As the sun continues to rise, it reflects off the big front doors of our campus church. These doors along with the windows let in the drifting rays, requisite tropical insects, and happy kids. The bright, airy atmosphere inside echoes the warm openness of this place. The red, wood pews are always filled with squirming, foot-swinging, exuberant bodies, and a cacophony of praise. You won’t find a pastor at the pulpit, or a professional praise team leading up front. You may be surprised to find just the same folks that were passing out math worksheets across the street, plus their reluctant mathematicians. Few places have been more accurately called a church family.

Stepping out from under the church awning, back into the beating sun, you’ll approach the Casa de Los Gringos. Zoro, Treson, and Carlo, fellow SMs from SAU, technically live here. However, the odds are you won’t find them unless you show up for breakfast. After that, these hard-working dudes are out fixing up the campus, cracking jokes with kids, or teaching in the classroom. Nevertheless, their home is a favorite spot for the SMs and serves as everything from our breakfast bistro to movie theater. The long wooden table is usually filled with papayas, pancakes, half-graded papers, and sleepy, but smiling faces. It’s our home away from home.

Continuing down the winding path, the sunshine mixes with warm wafts of grapefruit from the overhanging branches. On your left will be the Casa del Guerreros, a tall rectangular building, wooden on top with a brick lower story. You’re sure to be greeted by the warriors themselves, at the ready with a joke. I’m certain this house has twice as many machetes as the rest of the campus combined. They’re supposedly for mowing the grass. Instead, they hang, like art in a museum, providing macho interior decorating.

The light reflects off a very different scene across the street at the Casa de Las Lilas. Far from the Guerrero’s machetes, the floor here is a mosaic of colorful scraps of paper, vibrant yarns, and dancing feet. And as of recently, you’ve got to watch your step for six newborn kittens scattered around like specks of salt and pepper. If home is where the heart is, this is my real home at Familia Feliz. These girls have my whole heart.

As the sun continues to rise over Familia Feliz, passing the Lilas, its rays fall softly on the Casa de Los Leones. And that’s about the only thing that falls softly here. Boys out of trees, big splashes of water, and more paper airplanes than you can count all fall with great gusto and bedlam at the Leones. This house is bursting at the seams with legos, laughter, music, and of course little boys. These little dudes run practically everywhere in their big home, only to be contained by a big hug or a delicious dinner at their long back porch table.

Back past the Lilas, through a pygmy forest of baby pineapples, and across a tiny bridge, the morning sunlight travels before warming the red brick of my house. La Casa de Las Flores houses my fellow female volunteers and me. Despite our growing list of unwelcome house guests including bats, giant cockroaches, and tarantulas; I’m thankful to share this space with some of the kindest souls on campus. Though the days can be long, there's always someone who can relate and provide reassurance or a hug.

As the last rays fade into pinks and purples, closing another day at Familia Feliz, I pray that God’s light will shine on these kids. There is so much darkness in this world and many of these young lives have borne the brunt of it. The good news is that as John says in chapter 1 verse 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Just as the night cannot be where the sun rises, I know that the Ultimate Light can remove the anger, resentment, and hurt dwelling in these young hearts. I pray that He shines through me.