Shalom means "Geronimo"?

 Shalom, post x-rays and anesthesia

I think I need a new name for my cat Shalom.  In her short 6 months of life, she has jumped (or fallen?) out of a third story window not once, but TWICE!!  Here in Bolivia, cats don't have 9 lives, but just 7.  So, depending on whether Shalom is considered Bolivian by birth or American by adoption, she has between 5 and 7 lives left.  You'd think a cat would learn, but maybe, as my housemate Ingrid said, Shalom is confused like the bird in the children's book "Are You My Mother?" and maybe thinks her mom was a bird...  Who knows.

           Shalom's signed cast

What I do know is that Shalom is one tough kitty, surviving her second fall (or jump?) with just another fractured leg and a scraped nose.  Most of my Bolivian friends wanted to sign her cast when they saw it.  I guess that's something that's the same in both countries!

Mayra, playing hopscotch

I've been "adopted" by my neighbors who live on the corner of my street.  There are 11 kids in the family, most of whom still live at home.  I'm friends with 5 of them: Maria (1st grade), Liz (1st grade), Deyvid (3rd grade), Mayra, and Jhonatan.  I've had them over for apple cider and pumpkin muffins (a bit out of place during the summer here!), taken them to church, and played avioncito (hopscotch) out front.  I think all my neighbors know my name now and where I live because almost every day, the kids stand under my balcony and little Maria, with her voice of a market vendor yells "¡Kati!"until I come out on my balcony.

 

Jhonatan, Mayra, Liz & Maria

It's been a stretch sometimes, since I became friends with them, because they often come over at a time when I'm in the middle of eating lunch, washing clothes, or cooking dinner.  Because they come over almost every day, I'm often tempted to just turn them away and tell them to come back another time.  One of those times, I had just told Deyvid to come back another day, when he said, "Can I have some water?"  It was nine at night, and I didn't really have the time to walk down three stories, unlock the gate and give him water, so I told him to come back later.  And then Matthew 25:35 hit me in the stomach "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..."

Their family is not very well off, the kids are often running around barefoot, in dirty, tattered clothes.  Every time they come around they're almost always really hungry.  Am I really that selfish that I can't stop what I'm doing for 10 minutes to bring Deyvid some water and a piece of bread?  James 2:14 says:

    
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  if one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?"

So, today when Deyvid yelled "¡Kati!" from the street below and I was in the middle of something, I took him a glass of water and a fresh tortilla before going back to what I was doing.  I can only hope that as I continue to live in Bolivia, that each day I can learn to be a little more like Christ, a little more considerate with my time and my resources, sacrificing what I want for what He wants.