Sunday 6 January 2013

The day seemed to start far too early, but then again we were 3 hours ahead of UK time so the 6:30am start was more like 3:30am to our bodies!

We had our first Leaders' Devotions, which I led, and then our first Morning Drills, which is similar to doing Zumba I've been told.  There was a team-building session for the leaders and some setting up and getting ready for the children to arrive.

The children arrived just before lunch and most of them were very quiet and almost "shell-shocked" to begin with, not too surprising since for a lot of them it was their first time being in an environment where they had solid paving under their feet and brick buildings on every side of them.  We helped match name badges to children and assisted those who didn't have their name badge yet.  I also think that being so close to a white person might have been a first for many of them also as they looked at the 4 of us with curiousity.  There was a small young boy who I tried to help and at first I assumed he didn't speak English as he didn't say anything back to me.  When I offered my hand to him he declined but he did follow me to where he needed to go.  However, it didn't take long for the children to settle in and start enjoying themselves and only 2 hours later I saw that same little boy who then ran up to me as soon as he saw me with a huge smile on his face.

There were organised games for the children in the afternoon and over the 1.5 hours of games I realised that these children really were no different to other children... disappointed when their team lost and looking to blame eachother, elated when their team won and rubbing it in the faces of the other team.  At one point, the girls were being led in a game while the boys watched.  Some started to get restless and I joined one of them in doing cartwheels.

For the evening, each dormitory group had been asked to prepare some kind of a presentation.  They ranged from drama sketches to dances and each was about the rights and freedoms of children... we were really impressed with what they'd each come up with in only an hour of preparation and they definitely weren't shy about child advocacy.

Breakfast - 2 slices of bread and a banana
Lunch - Boiled rice, baked beans, Tooke, a chunk of meat (goat?) and some broth
Dinner - Boiled rice, Tooke, chicken (all parts included in the pot!), broth, spinach, purple peanut paste and a chapati.