Visiting boys

I finally went to visit boys dorms on Friday night. I usually spend all nights with girls but secretary Sharon had found a DVD player that was successfully connected to the TV and girls had a movie night. They watch the movie and are amazed but my movie is to watch them. Some have so strong emotions just as if they were in the movie themselves. Very exciting how they watch anything on the TV :)
There are evening devotions each night in every dorm. So I went to see how older boys do it. I expected to see very messy and dirty rooms and a lot of noise - like it usually is with 15, 16, 17 and 18 year old boys. When I was about 10 meters before the dorm I thought the boys have left because I didn't see anyone walking and it was so quiet. I walked in I couldn't believe my eyes - ALL 30 boys sit at their tables and are doing their homework in complete silence! I was speechless. I was even more surprised when I walked through their rooms. I had never seen such thing in my life - the rooms very SO perfectly clean that you could turn somersaults in white pants on the floor and your pants wouldn't get dirty. Their clothes and shoes are perfectly clean and in order, beds are made as nicely as in a hotel. I couldn't believe... I felt a bit ashamed of my 60 chicas who are as far from cleanliness and order as I am from Latvia...
Pastor with his wife look after the older boys' dorm. It's one of their 100 duties. They have to spend every night at the dorms. They actually have their own house but they spend all nights with boys. And as I learned later - the boys have to spend an hour each night doing their homework in complete silence. If they don't have any homework to do they have to read The Bible of another book. If they make some noise they get punished. Usually they have to squat or do sit-ups. And it works very well!
Pastor Samuel was leading the devotions. It's a lot shorter than in girls' dorms. There is a song in the beginning, a song in the end, a short Bible passage and pastor's contemplations. When Samuel had finished he turned to me. He said that they have nice and unexpected guests and he asked me to say something. I was surprised because I expected just to sit quietly and listen. But I pulled myself together and told the boys in Spanish why I am here, how God led me here and encouraged them to look for and pray for the right places and things for their lives. And I encouraged them to ask God great things and dream big dreams! God gave me words and I think I was able to speak quite normally.
I returned to my girls in the dorms... and I rushed to tell girls about the cleanliness and order I saw there... They too were shocked... who would have thought that boys in Bolivia are much orderly that girls!