#24 - Rice and more rice

26/02/2011

Got up bright and early this morning despite being ridiculously tired.
We usually have breakfast at 8:30 but this morning, that´s when we left to head to the church.
It was the day of our kids programme!

We got there at about 9 and set up for the next hour until the kids started drifting in at the start time of 10am.
We were about ready to go at twenty past but someone had the bright idea of sending ´Pongo´(Andy dressed as a clown) and a couple of us round the local houses to get even more kids to come down to the church.
Only afterwards did I realise how suspicious we looked: two young men and clown moving from home to home asking if there are any kids that want to come with us.

So we eventually started at 11ish, punctual by Panamanian standards, and the kids were split into rough age groups and each group went to one of four stations: Bracelets run by Christina, Face Painting run by Jess and Bonnie, Water Assault Course run by Jarett and Rope Trick/Games run by me.
The first three are pretty self-explanatory, and mine consisted of me telling the story of Jesus´ love and sacrifice on the cross using three ropes with a little trick at the end followed by a variety of games to fill the time.
With one group we did 50 Yard Scream where you have to run as far as possible while screaming, and when you run out of breath to scream you stop and the winner is who gets the furthest. With another group, we build a human pyramid which worked really well and they loved it.

After each group had visited each station, everyone was brought into the hall for some dramas and games and then it was time to go.
We had around 50 kids come which was a real achievement as we had only told a few people we´d seen in the last few days - I guess news travels fast in a small community.
We were delighted to see the woman whos house we renovated come along with her kids - they all had a great time which was just brilliant to see as a culmination of our work here in Volcan.

We all had rice and beef cooked for us after we finished - rice is such a staple here and I´m really developing a passion for it. They cook it in such inventive ways and always with a nice sauce so that it never gets boring, plus once it´s been served you can fry it and make crunchy rice - mmm.
Myself, Christina and Liset stayed after that along with Stephen (the guy who leads the worship band at the church) to practise for tomorrow´s service - I´m playing their old guitar with horrifically tough and sharp strings, and the girls are singing. The rest of the team are leading all other aspects of the service.

I then nipped down to the shop at the end of the road to get some trousers - they´re compulsory wear for inside the church and BOTH the zip-ons for both of my zip-on trousers broke whilst in the launderette - so angry about that. That said, the pair I got are pretty stylish so every cloud and all that. They set me back $22 though which was a bit annoying.

By the time we were all home, we were unbelievably tired. Almost everyone went for a nap which left me, Albin, Liset and Jarett playing cards to destress. All the building work/ entertaining kids of the last few days plus late nights and early mornings have contributed to all of us being run down and tired, but spirits are pretty high and team morale is still good.
This was greatly aided by our meal this evening - a family prepared it then brought it round to the house (at Albin´s request to stop us having to walk, bless him), and by the time it came real hunger was setting in and I was in the mood where I occasionally snap.
However two monstrous portions of rice and three bread rolls later, I was happy as larry and we had a brilliant evening sitting around talking and making jokes at the expense of Jess mainly (Christina was in bed still).

As I have subtly alluded to a few times in this post, I´m very tired indeed so that´s your lot for tonight. I´m looking forward to getting tomorrow´s service out the way (I only phrase it like that due to the fact that we´ll all be knackered the entire way through) because after that, we have Sunday afternoon and the whole of Monday free. All we have to do is pack.
A chance to rest!

Another side-effect of fatigue is feeling homesick - earlier on, I just wanted me shower and my bed and my family and my friends more than pretty much anything.
But I´m over it now, it comes and goes.

Enjoy your Sunday.

JG