Drew Lund's Mexican Adventures: Day 5 at Rancho Sordo Mudo

Drew Lund's Mexican Adventures: Day 5 at Rancho Sordo Mudo:
February 14, 2014

"I've only been at Rancho Sordomudo for about five days now, and I have to say, these kids are really growing on me already.

The students here make it pretty hard not to love them. They spend nine months out of the year living here on the ranch and for them this is home. Then, when some tall white kid shows up over halfway through the school year and the other staff tell the students "he's staying," they just immediately accepted me into their lives. They didn't wait and watch me to see if they liked me, they just welcomed me.

Every day after dinner most of the staff goes outside with the students to the playground for an hour or so. Usually I just stand on the basketball court and kick soccer balls around the whole time like a lot of the kids, but last night I left the court early to go stand on the side and watch. Before I could sit down on a bench nearby, a group of kids started asking me questions. Lots and lots of questions.

It started off nice and simple with questions like "how old are you?" and "where are you from?" and those sorts of basic conversation-starters (a couple other staff members, Lucas and Noemi, were translating the words I didn't know). Then they asked me strangely specific things like "do you have a best friend?" One student even asked me "what do you like?" No category, like sports or something, just "what do you like?" Then they transitioned into trying to teach me new signs I didn't know, which consisted of three or four students all pointing at something nearby and then signing it for me. And while I appreciated their enthusiasm to help me learn, it was fairly difficult to actually understand anything that was going on because all of them were frantically signing at the same time. It's hard enough to pay attention to multiple people talking to me in a language I'm actually competent in, never mind it all being in a language I've only been exposed to for five days. The whole time this was happening the kids were just laughing and smiling, and their high spirits rubbed definitely off on me and the other staff involved in the conversation.

One of the questions I was asked (before the conversation turned into a teaching frenzy) was "are you coming back next year?" In response I just laughed a little and reminded them I haven't even been here less than a week so it's a little soon to tell. But I couldn't help but think about that while the conversation continued. I can already understand why all of the staff of RSM, past and present, are so committed to these students. They  really have a way of getting into your heart. While it is true that it's too soon for me to know where God will want me next year, I have to be honest, I can't imagine leaving these kids after just four months."