Thursday didn’t start out like the other days. We woke up early, as we had every morning, but then we headed into town. Our goal was to shop at the local market to buy the things that we needed so that we could cook an “American” dinner for everyone at the church compound. We decided we would fry chicken, have some baked potatoes, another vegetable (we were undecided because there were a few things that we couldn’t describe very well with the language barrier) and a banana split type dessert. Well, we had a few challenges with buying what we needed to make the above meal a reality. We did find the ice cream pretty early in the trip, so we went ahead and got it. We were able to find 1 package of “processed cheese,” which, in Brooke’s words, was “almost like Velveeta, but imagine a white cheddar cheese popcorn flavor.” We couldn’t really find aluminum foil, but we still felt like we could improvise a little for the baked potatoes. We found some okra and green beans and a few other vegetables that we could cook, but we felt like the green beans would be the safest option, so that’s what we picked.
While at the market, we also got a few items for the kids at the school to be given on behalf of St Mary’s Church. We found some “good quality” pens for the older kids and some other appropriate pens for the younger children and we found some sporting equipment for them too. The kids will now have good cricket bats, volleyball sets, badminton sets, and a few other things. By this time (about an hour and a half), of course our ice cream has melted, but it’s ok, right?
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| Diving into Genesis....getting ready for our role-play for the evening. |
After this adventure, we headed to the school to work with the children (much later than we had anticipated). We had a great plan for them since our day was so scattered and we started it off by demonstrating what we were going to ask them to do. We acted out the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” for them and asked them a few questions to make sure that they understood the story. Then we gave them an assignment to complete during the day and to have ready by the evening when we came back. We had come to realize that they have very little exposure to the Old Testament, so this sort of gave us the idea for our plan for the day. Each team (6 teams in all) were to put together a roll play based on a part of Joseph’s life from Genesis. Our teams were the exact same as the ones from Wednesday, which meant that I had a team of all boys. What I didn’t know was that there was a little 13-year old who came out of his shell and finally let me know that he can actually speak English quite well!! Like, almost as good as an interpreter. He started asking me questions for everyone else in the group that they wanted to know and then told me that his hobby was learning about America! HA!! What an awesome thing to finally learn......I had been trying so hard to keep things simple and talk through another interpreter, but God had already provided a sweet little kid in the group with that knowledge! HOW AWESOME!! His name is Girish, by the way. Our group was to act out the story of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, so after they read through it a couple of times and came up with an idea, I felt like we were good to go.
After we left the school, we went back to the church property for a late lunch, a “brief rest,” and then we loaded up and headed to the village we were visiting for the day. We only had 1 village visit for the day because of the changes in schedule. Since we had to make a few changes, what we did at this village was simply engage them in conversation and discussions regarding their newly installed well. Of course, on our arrival, we were greeted by the people in the village with coconut water.....again. In this particular village, there are currently over 100 families using the water from this well. They told us, too, that their pond where they washed clothes and bathed had now dried up, so they use the well water for everything (drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc....). They allow everyone to use the water from the well....not just those that helped to raise the money for the repairs and maintenance. This was a very productive visit with the people here and was a really good change of pace....especially because the ride to get to the village was a good bit longer than the others had been.
After the village visit, we went back to the school and hung out with our groups a little more to finalize our skits and then just spend some more time getting to know them. It was a fabulous night and, I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with how well these kids acted out the stories from the life of Joseph. Then, as with every other lesson, we quizzed the kids to see how well they understood the information. We made this one a little interesting, though, and played a game of snakes and ladders just to add an extra element of excitement. There was a little time left to still visit with the kids after we finished the game and Girish was there with more questions for me. One of the questions that he had for me was, “when are you coming back?” My reply was, “I don’t know.” He immediately turned around and went to the pastor to ask clarification on how to ask the question. He came back and asked me again, “when are you coming back?” I replied, “I am not sure.” Again, he turned around (a little frustration on his face at this point) and went to the pastor to ask clarification on how to say it in English. When he came back and started the same question again, I said, “I don’t know.” I saw a VERY frustrated look on his face as he started to turn again back to the pastor. I said, “no, I understand what you’re saying, I just don’t really have an answer for you. I don’t know my plans yet for when I’m going to be back here.” It was absolutely precious!
After we finished at the school, the ladies headed back to the church compound while Mike stayed to teach his final lesson to the pastors. We got back to the church around 8:30 and then immediately dived in to making the “American dinner” for the people at the compound. Our cooking facilities were not at all like what we have in the US, but we were able to work through it. First, we battered and fried the chicken and then covered that until the rest was ready. We realized that none of our options to have a baked potato were actually going to work, so we decided we would peel the potatoes and mash them (mixing in a little “processed cheese” and butter) and that would suffice. While this was cooking, some were also snapping the beans and getting them ready to go in the pot to be cooked. Once all of our food was done, the cook for the church compound added a pot of rice, which was ready in a matter of minutes. The food was brought upstairs to the dining area and everyone sat down as we served them dinner. It was a pretty good end to a very long day. I can’t believe we only have 1 more night left in this village.
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