Wednesday, June 21

I overslept! When I got up, it was 7:10, and the team was leaving at 7:30! We hurriedly got dressed, and hopped on the truck. Turns out the reason Vicki had heard us talking was that she was already awake, due to being ill. She took Immodium and Cipro right away, though, and said she was feeling a little better. Karyn was also feeling ill. They both wanted to stay with the team, so we drove to the school for breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to church for the sponsored children’s outing. Sponsors back in Wisconsin sent cards down with us, and we had a gathering for the children to get their cards, and an opportunity to make cards or bookmarks to send to their sponsors. Casey and Jenny are very crafty, so they’d purchased all sorts of neat stickers, ribbons, and such for the children to use to make cards. Only about a third of the children for whom we had cards and/or letters were able to attend.

Rafael, the young man we began sponsoring after Elison left the program, was there. We learned his favorite subject in school is mathematics and he wants to be a soldier when he finishes school.

Mary (Maria) is no longer in the program, but lives near the church, so someone ran to her house to see if she could come. So we also had a nice visit with her! She is almost finished with her secondary education – she told us she has tests to take and then will be finished. She is not sure what she will do after school. She has a job, but would like to study either accounting or medicine. She likes both, but studying medicine would take many more years than accounting!

Then, after lunch, we had VBS. This was the day the children were to make hand puppets from paper bags. We’d brought paper bags, with the tongue and mouth already glued/drawn on, and lots of stuff for them to finish the project. It was rather chaotic! All of the children (and there were approximately 150 of them) wanted all of the stuff – stickers, markers, crayons, glue, cut outs, etc. And they weren’t willing to sit still while we handed things out! I am somewhat uncomfortable in large crowds, and especially if they are pressing in upon me, and I lost my temper. Casey was wise enough to send me out for a break! I took a chair, and sat in the shade behind the church until I regained my calm. I was very glad it was cooler. I forgot to bring the thermometer, though, so I don’t know how much cooler!

After VBS, about six of the little girls decided Fred should learn some Spanish, and they should teach him. He told us they were quite demanding instructors! He had a lot of fun though!

We discussed on the way back to camp ways that we might be able to have a more orderly time in VBS. One thing we decided was that we had to set limits. In the chaos, it would have been easy for one of the smaller children to get hurt, and we certainly don’t want that!