Registration was to begin at 9:30, but children started arriving at the gate around 8:30! To pass the time, they began chanting and singing - it was wonderful to hear!
As they got registered, they were brought up to the gazebo. You could tell they didn't know what to think of all the Americans watching them, speaking a strange language they didn't understand, and taking pictures of them. The littlest ones (5 & 6 year olds), especially held some trepidation.
Since there is only one bathroom for each gender, they were taken in small groups from the gazebo to change into their water clothes right away. After they changed, they were allowed to play on the compound until everyone else was ready. This time was really fun as we tried to speak with our meager knowledge of Creole and smiled a lot to show that we were ok. It also involved lots of photo opportunities. And of course, after you take a picture, you have to show it to them, resulting in much laughter as they love to see themselves on the camera.
Finally, after everyone was registered and changed clothes, we began with a whole-group gathering. Meg gave instructions for the day, and then Felix led the group in singing a few songs.
After the whole-group gathering, each color group went to their assigned station. The groups are separated by age, and each group is given a color for easy designation. Morgan and Charity are the leaders of the pink group, which is the five- and six-year-olds. Melissa is leading the green group, seven- and eight-year-olds, Christy is leading the blue group of nine- and ten-year-olds, and Jason is leading the orange group, a second group of nine- and ten-year-olds. Bob and Aidan are leading the purple group, the oldest at eleven and twelve. Each group has between 25 and 30 children, so we are serving 145 children! The rest of the adults are station leaders: crafts, pools, water games, sports, and bible talk/health. Pastor Larry and I are in charge of taking pictures. Today's project was getting a picture of each group, as well and individual pictures of each child, as the craft on Friday will be decorating a foam frame to put their picture in. Tomorrow and Friday we'll be working on printing the pictures and circulating to capture candid of all the kids.
The culmination of VBS today involved another whole-group gathering with singing (and handing out lots of left-behind items!), and then lunch of beans and rice, chicken, and fried plantains. Each child (even the little ones) receive a full-size paper plate full of food, and most ate it all. Rosanne commented that she didn't know at first if the little ones could eat that much, but they did.
The team ate in the little gathering area upstairs with the Haitian interpreters. When Aidan wanted to go back for seconds, Bob stopped him, so there would be enough for the interpreters if they wanted more. This became a lesson for Aidan as Bob explained to him that, while we can count on breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday, this may be the only meal the Haitians receive today, and possibly for a few days.
OK, at this point, I have to apologize to my team members. Yesterday, I posted that the heat was not unbearable. Well, that's because one could usually find a breeze. Today, not so much. The air is stagnant today, which means the sweat just clings to you. After lunch was over and the kids left, I stretched out on my bed starfish-style to cool off, and ended up taking a 3-hour nap, as the heat got to me more so than I thought. Morgan, Bob, and several of the others ended up napping as well. Poor Aidan, he just has not been into naps, but prefers to occupy himself.
Today, he had a run-in with a nest of fire ants. Of course, when one finds himself in a battle with fire ants, one must become the victor and crush them all to death! So that's what he did.
I woke up from my nap to the sounds of banging and digging right here on the compound. I found out a little while later that all the water we had used all day (rinsing tie-dyed shirts at crafts, running the slip-and-slide and refilling the pools) had burnt out the motor on the water pump, which meant we had no water for the toilets or showers. Ooops! We feel really badly for causing this problem! So, without a backup water pump, Wilbert and several of the workers devised some solution which involved laying new pipes. These guys can fix anything! Someone commented how at home we would call a plumber and probably have to wait a day or two before they could even come to look at the problem, and these guys had it fixed before we went to bed! So no more slip-and-slide, and the shirts are done, which should ease up on the water use for the next two days.
We still had about an hour before supper, so Pastor Larry and I began printing the pictures, knowing it would be a fairly slow process.
Dinner was spicy tuna sandwiches and more yummy mint tea. Conversation included Pastor Larry leading a discussion on prayer. A review of the day (what went well and what needed to be revised) followed, and after that, an hour or two of chitchat. I think we were just enjoying sitting in the cooler night air. Haiti is an hour behind us because they don't do Daylight Savings Time. That, coupled with being on the eastern edge of the time zone means that the sun rises and sets much earlier here than at home. It is full-blown daylight by 5 am, and dark at 7 pm.
Hopefully, tonight will be a good night of rest, so we can be ready to do it all again tomorrow!
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