Yesterday I was a group leader. It was neat to see all of the different
stations rather than be at one station all day long. Of course, I ended up with the crazy boys.
They were impossible to keep track of; I don’t even know how many boys I had in
my group. At one time there was six, and
the next there was ten. A boy decided to
kick the ball as hard as he could, and the ball nailed me right in the face. The kids were chaotic and had a lot of energy,
though sometimes the energy was impossible to contain. Overall, it was worth
the craziness; my group and I had a lot of fun.
After sports camp, we went to visit
a Batey. I wouldn't quite say I enjoyed
it because it was hard to see people living in those conditions, but I
definitely think that it was good that we went. It really made me think about
the things that I have that I would never think twice about. Until then I had never seen a skinny
baby. It made me think about how
fortunate we are in America. Yeah, some
people have nicer houses than others, but we all have better living conditions
than these people.
Rachel George
This week has been largely about
the sports camp that has been going on, as well as the VBS happening at the
same time. But most of my week, though
not all of it, has been spent doing something outside of the normal jobs. I built a wall.
When I came here, I didn’t expect
to do a whole lot of construction. Maybe
a few odd jobs, and probably some painting, but nothing major. As it turns out, Moise had in mind for us a
rather complex construction project. He
showed us a large room on the second floor, sporting attics on either side to
store extra desks and chairs. He
explained that he wanted two rooms instead of one, and ceilings to cover
them. Ted, Colton, and I set out to
build the wall, receiving heavy, splintery lumber on the second day, and got
cutting on the third. We came back from
resting on Sunday and continued on our project.
By Monday at lunchtime, we had a firm divider in the middle of our
workspace, much to the surprise of the rest of the team.
Working with Ted on the project has
really encouraged me. I haven’t done
much work with anyone other than my family, and wasn’t sure how I was going to
like having a job this summer and working with other people. I really enjoyed my work, however, and was
quite pleased with the end result. I
liked the feeling that I’ll be able to come back in a few years, walk into the
classroom, and think Yeah, I built that. And while the project is far from done, the
next team will need to finish the roof, and we may still work on it tomorrow, I
feel a great sense of accomplishment in what we got done. I strived to think of some symbolic thing
about building a wall, but the words escape me.
Plus, it wasn’t too bad getting out
of the sun and working inside. We would never admit that though.
I
saw a cow today. Jeb
Bishop
Today, we went over to the Olympic Village for sports camp.
It was a tiring mile walk over, but once we got there it was a blast. With the
little kids we played soccer games, which was a lot of fun. Then once we got
all hot and sweaty (it’s nice and sunny today) we decided to run some track
events. The kids loved the 50 meter dash, and in the 400 meter run they lasted
about 200 meters. By then we were all tired and decided to lay in the shade,
drink water, and have tickle wars with the little girls. After we walked back
to the school and ate lunch, we walked back to the soccer field with the older
group and got a big soccer game
going. A few of us played volleyball
with the older girls, which was fun. Once we got tired of volleyball we sat
down and the Dominicans taught us some games, which were really cool.
I love the
kids down here. They are so fun to be
around. The little girls and I are
always getting into tickle fights, or they steal my water bottle and I have to
chase them. They love playing with my
hair, no matter how gross it is. Being in this country is very fascinating. I’m missing the air conditioning and long
showers, but those are minor sacrifices for the experience here and seeing
God’s work here.
Lisa
Simmons
