So I have a bit of catching up to do. Day 5 I didn't go to the home for the disabled with everyone else. My team, Miss Neumann, and a few others got to go out to Tent City for a feeding. As we arrived, the kids came running up behind our cars holding bowls, plastic bags, cups, jugs, or anything else they could get their hands on. It was chaos trying to keep everyone in two lines and feed as many as possible. I fed for a couple minutes before trading off with Josh, and then I played with the kids around the van, of which there was an endless amount. One girl kept insisting I hold her and take her up and down the block. Some of the kids needed medical attention, and I even found a baby who couldn't have been more than two years old walking around with an open cut on her face. We had also brought the first-aid kit, so these kids were taken to the van and cleaned and bandaged. It was heartbreaking to see these kids living in such terrible conditions. When we ran out of food there were still a bunch of kids lined up asking us for more. We got back to the YMC about an hour before everyone else, so we ate lunch, did the dishes, and hung out till the other groups arrived. After they ate lunch and we did their dishes (we were on the lunch rotation) all the groups headed out to do construction. We started by breaking up cement and loading it onto the truck, but then the truck broke down and we had to go help dig out the Pit (the Pit is what we call the septic tank we were digging on day 4). After about 20 minutes of that, group B (my group) was sent to the elementary school to paint. Turns out they didn't need any more painters, but group G had to do ministry prep so we replaced them in cleaning off the roof. We were tired, hot, muddy, and starting to get hungry. We took off our shoes, which were beyond filthy, and essentially had a huge water fight in the name of productivity. It was so much fun! We filled up buckets with water, and instead of dumping them directly on the roof, we dumped them on each other. By the time we had to leave, we were re-energized, laughing, and clean (well...besides the shoes). We painted the fence at the Children's Home for a little while and then played basketball with a couple of the kids past dinner. Dinner was delicious, as is all the food her, with fantastic desert (again as per usual). Then since we were on rest we hung out for about an hour till the other groups got back from their devos. Day 6 (when I was supposed to write last...heh heh) we took a trip up to the falls. It was amazing! You probably have seen the pictures taken, but I'll tell you about it anyways. The weather was cool and it was raining light and misty the whole time. The scenery is way better than what you see in the pictures. Rock that goes straight up, shrouded in green trees, vines, and small waterfalls the whole way. I felt like I was in the Jungle Book! Then they actually took us under the falls on a bamboo raft, and we were allowed to jump off and swim under the water fall! Thank goodness for the helmets they gave us. We got changed, ate yummy fried chicken for lunch and then headed back. I prepped the skit for the concert the next day while other people cleaned, then we had a movie night for all the kids! We watched Big Hero 6 and then had LALs and went to bed. The skits for the worship concert can be found on Youtube, they're Director's Cut, The Sin Chair, and Wake Me Up. I'll have to write more tomorrow because I've run out of time. See y'all! Smiles and Sunshine, Natalie Yesterday everyone went to an open, dirt lot and performed various skits and sang different songs. I was apart of the praise team and was able to lead the song Oceans and a couple others. I think that the concert day was my favorite day because of the interaction we were able to have with the kids and their families. Instead of being in our normal environment playing, we were able to see more of the reality of their living situations and understand where some of these kids are coming from. Throughout this whole trip the thing that has hit me is the amount of poverty that exists in our world today. I would sit there playing and hugging the children, wondering why I was put in the place I was and why they were put there. I've come to realize that I don't know everything that God does, but I do know that he is good and so are his intention and so, it's not my place to question God about why there is poverty. My job is to take care of those who have less than me; since I have more and they have less I should give more of myself to them and in result of this I give them a picture of the love of Christ.
So today we had "Sports Day," which is basically like Scipmylo (we played almost exactly the same games, oh memories), for some of the kids from Journey for Hope. It was really fun and the best part was everyone participated and was happy about it. But I think the best part of the day was the worship concert. We went out to a village (to my parents, think Laoye's kind of village) to put on the concert and I had one little 6 year old girl who wouldn't leave me the whole night. She sat on my shoulders for almost two hours and we had a ton of fun together. She braided my hair, told me about her family, asked me if I knew Frozen, drew a heart on my hand, sang Shake It Off for me, talked about why she liked basketball, and basically acted like I was her big sister that she had known forever. When all the skits and singing were done, she sat on my shoulders and we went around with a notebook asking for people's names (in Korean, English, and Chinese) as well as their age (even the adults). She wrote down every single volunteer's name. When we had to leave, she held on to my leg and asked me to promise never to forget her and to come back for her again. I promised her I would always remember her and that I would try my best to come back again but it probably wouldn't be soon. :( If I couldn't come, she said that one day she would come visit me. I hope that someday she has the ability to. She was one of the greatest examples of faith like a child that I have ever seen. She also showed amazing love for life and for everything. She had her own names for stars (she made up her own constellations) and walked me out to the field so I could see some flowers that she liked. Her happiness was contagious and simply amazing. She had a very fitting name- Angel.
-Marta Today we got to take some time off and take a trip out to Pagsanjan Waterfall. I did not really know what to expect except that we were going to get wet. We all piled into a big tour bus and drove 2 winding hours out of the city. We could see mountains and water in the distance. Once at the resort/tourist center, we donned helmets and life jackets. Filipino tour guides took us three at a time in canoes. Unfortunately, all we could do was just sit and let them paddle us down the river. I was very impressed by their navigation skills and their strength in lifting us over rocky places. The canoe ride lasted an hour or so and was very relaxing. I got to see nature as I had never seen it before...canyons, waterfalls, hanging vines. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Once at the falls, we got out of our canoes and packed onto bamboo rafts to get pulled under the water and view it from the other side. The water was cold, and everyone screamed as it pounded down on our heads and backs. It was worth it, though. I've never experienced anything like it before! You can see pics from the trip on the picture page! -Joanna Today we went to an open gym area and hung out with families who had children with disabilities. For me, this hit pretty close to home and close to my heart because, for part of my childhood, I lived with Deanna (my foster sister) who has a disability. Playing with these adults and children today really made me think of what my definition of blessed is, and also how blessed I am with the life I have been given. I realized that these people see the world through different eyes, eyes that I could never see through, and for that, they are blessed too; their vision isn't covered with the same sinfulness that mine may be. Yesterday was really hard. We started out doing construction, JiWon and I were painting the fence while the leaders, the boys, and SooBin were carrying and pouring cement. Remember how I told you about tying metal? They poured the cement on the roof we had prepped. After that SooBin and I taught second graders Chinese for about two hours (just numbers) and then went back for lunch. We had over two hours to eat lunch because our next rotation was Ministry Prep. Ministry Prep is what you do when you're leading devotions that night. So we quickly ran through a skit and choose a couple songs and games then we just hung out. After that we were on construction again, this time digging a septic tank (basically a sewer hole). It was gross and wet and hard to dig out, but we did it without complaining and ended up completely filthy. The only thing I had to complain about was there was an adorable puppy that I wasn't allowed to pet. Then we led devotions at the Children's home, which went really well and really smoothly considering we were practically winging it (I had two teachers from other groups tell me we did a great job). Then I swam for about two hours (and yes I jumped). BUT! I almost forgot to tell you, that Marta's group had swimming lessons and she got into a competition with a kid to see how many crazy back flips they could do and she won by doing one off the platform. I KNOW RIGHT?! She's crazy and she said it was scary because she could see the pavement as she flipped. However, doing a front flip is easy enough, and she convinced me to try just one. So I did. It was awesome! Less scary then just jumping because you don't see yourself fall. However, I realized two late where the water was and that I had already done a flip and a half and smacked face-first into the water. It hurt, and I don't plan on flipping again, but it was worth it to be able to say that I did. Today we went to a neighborhood next to Children's Garden and helped clean up, then we played with the kids there. After that, we spent an hour and forty-five minutes doing crafts with 1st graders (I don't know how teachers do it!) and then we played a couple games. Then we went to Journey for Hope (boys home) and did crafts with those kids there. Now we're back at the YMC and I have to eat dinner before we head back to Journey for Hope to help out with devos. I know I didn't write as much as before, but I'm in a little bit of a rush and I have pictures (Click "read more")!! Love Y'all Smiles and Sunshine, Natalie. The thing that impresses me the most so far about being here is the friendliness and openness of the children. I have only been here for less than 5 days and already, all the kids I have met--at the school, the children's home, even just walking around on the street--all say hi to me and ask me what my name is and tell me what their name is. In contrast, I have lived in the same neighborhood in China for almost 5 years, and I don't know any of the kids' names. I don't even think I could tell you who lives in my building! Part of this is my fault, I guess. Even though others are not friendly to me, doesn't mean that I can't try. Knowing someone's name could be the beginning of something more. :) So we kicked off today with teaching second grade. We had kids from varying English levels in the same class, so it was a tad bit difficult to communicate clearly to all of them, but it was fun and, at certain times, humorous.
Then we had the hardest task so far- building a roof. It was exceedingly hot and they were running live wire (as in, it had electricity and was powering a motor that was doing something) with spotty pieces of plastic slightly covering the metal right above of the roof we were working on. "Just don't touch it" the workers said. Haha. I think the worst part though was mixing the concrete. It got everywhere (my tennis shoes are kinda ruined, sorry to my parents) and we shoveled gravel & powder from two other big piles into another big pile that had water in it. It makes your back hurt like crazy, and we did it for about an hour and a half. After that, we taught swim lessons. We had kids who couldn't swim at all, and then kids who wanted to try the high-dive. It was kinda crazy, and some of our team didn't know how to swim either, but we tried our best and had a good time. And after that we just played around with the kids. I played basketball for a couple hours with kids from the children's home and some street kids joined us. It's really surprising and sad in a way to see 4 foot tall kids, whose ribs you can count, make three pointers. It's amazing how they put so much effort into learning the game and can still find joy in life even when they don't know when their next meal is. They are exceedingly optimistic. That's probably what I learned the most from today. It's incredible to see little kids still pray and trust Jesus loves them even if they are starving. They still are happy, they still think Lebron James is awesome, they still enjoy dancing to the banana song. It really makes you appreciate how much you have. So (main lesson today) don't think your life is so bad. When you have a math test or something, or you have just given a test and have 40-something to grade and there was 4 essay questions or worse, well, look on the bright side and be grateful for all the little things you take for granted, whether it's good weather or the nice smell from a bakery or making 3 free throws in a row, because those little things mean the world to kids like these. ~Marta |