Life Lessons

Last week we had a medical and construction team here. This year because of all the work that is being done on the community center, the construction team had three very very busy days all of which included mixing, moving and pouring cement. If you haven't done it, it can be pretty tiring. Our construction team was fairly small, so we were all constantly on the move, shoveling and moving buckets of sand and gravel, then filling and moving buckets of cement. Then doing it all over again....all day.


About half way into the third day, one of the 14 year old boys we work with in Tres Reyes (Tony) got my attention and asked if he could help us. Given how exhausted we all were, and knowing we still had 3-4 more hours of cement work, his offer was appreciated by all of us. So I invited him to help. About an hour or so later he told me his friend Louis, also 14, wanted to help. I welcomed him as well. They both jumped in and worked hard for over three hours. Their contribution was significant and helped us finish the huge cement pour in the large palapa.

Rewind to the previous day..... Tony and his two sisters were scheduled to meet with the tutor for a few hours. They've been meeting for over a year now, helping the kids get caught up and stay on track with their grades. We've told the kids how critical it is that they show up and be on time for their tutoring sessions. We also explained to them that we pay the tutor to be there with them. On this day of tutoring, all three kids, including Tony, left the tutoring session early....a couple hours early. They said they had  other things to do. Needless to say it frustrated the tutor.

Back to the cement work..... After Tony and Louis finished  their work with us, I pulled them aside with one of our other staff who has been working more closely with the family, and  told them how much their work helped and that I was proud of them for working so hard. I told them I wanted to pay them for their hard work. But I also needed to help Tony connect his hard work and earnings with what he (and his sisters) had done to the tutor the previous day. I told him that I wanted to pay him 100 pesos, but because we had to pay the tutor, even though he left early, I couldn't pay him as much. I could only pay him 50 pesos. His friend also got paid 70 pesos. As I explained this to Tony, my prayer was that  he could understand, at least to some degree, how his actions were costly, not only to the tutor and Back2Back, but also to himself.


My children often received "teachable moment" lessons from me as they grew up. Some stuck. Some probably didn't. I pray that the reality of how actions have consequences will give Tony something he needs as he grows and matures.