Giving of gifts:
Earlier I shared that we brought with us a large number of gifts for the people that we will be serving in Burkina Faso. This includes close to 50 t-shirts, 10 baseball caps, 6 book bags, coloring books, pens, pencils, composition books, and so on. Along the way we have been working on deciding how we will share what we have brought. One of the desires was to share some of the gifts with some of the locals who have shown up around us during the camp. On Monday during “sport”, Laura had brought with her two t-shirts, two coloring books, some crayons, and a small foam football. As we were playing Frisbee, two of the local children were spotted as they were working in a field nearby. Laura and I brought them each a t-shirt, coloring book, and the crayons. It appeared that they spoke Moore, the local language, and they were very appreciative. About five minutes later two other people showed up in that field and waving towards Laura and I, obviously in connection to what we had just given. Laura and I were concerned that there might be a problem with our gifts. We get there and it is the older sister and brother of the initial two, and she was thanking us for the gifts. She also asked if there was anything else. Laura gave her the football and then Laura did a quick run back to our hut to get more t-shirts. By the time Laura got back, I was throwing the football with the girl and the mother had joined in with us. In the end we gave them all a t-shirt and they were thrilled. After we had completed giving them the gifts, we returned to playing Frisbee. In the distance you could still see them holding up their new t-shirts and admiring what they received.
A Successful Failure:
Over the last couple days we have been coming up with ideas as to how we could increase our presence at the camp. One of the ideas was to teach them an American worship song. After much debate, we chose “Every Move I Make”. Only Laura and I really knew the song, but we practiced it with the others and all seemed fine. Laura also taught us motions to the song from a camp that she had worked at in Florida. Not one of our team members is the best at leading singing, so we were in a small bind. The idea we had was to use my ipod and ipod speakers to set the music. We also wrote the lyrics on the chalkboard so people could follow along. Our first two tries were absolute failures. There are about hundred kids in a concrete walled and steel ceiling classroom. The music from the ipod traveled nowhere and the words and lyrics made no sense to the campers. Eventually, it was suggested that we just take them through in speaking the lyrics line by line. Then we tried just singing it on our own. Things started improving, but it was still a little crazy. Haley was doing a great job in leading us and being loud enough for everybody to hear. Ryan was good at providing energy and enthusiasm for the song. During the end of the song for the motions we just jump up and down. Whenever we did that, the room roared in laughter and excitement. As Emily said afterwards: “when things are not going well, just jump”. When I got back to my seat one of the guys I was sitting next to said “Very good”, the other said “That was wonderful”.
The Hike:
A big event for this camp is in the middle of the week when they have a games activity which is basically a scavenger hunt. The event was met with mixed results amongst our team. Myself and Emily were less than thrilled with the afternoon. Ryan, Haley, and Laura enjoyed the event. We have been separated into groups for the camp, and each of our five team members is in a different group (we are in five of the 15 groups). In about five minute intervals we were released from a starting location. From there we followed arrows which were carved into the ground at about 100 meter intervals. Therefore, about every 100 m the group would stop and wander around the area looking for the next arrow. Sometimes the arrow was easy to find, other times it would take 20-30 minutes. Mixed in with the trail were locations of “Messengers”. When we’d find a messenger location we would have to search to find where a person was waiting for us. They would then ask us questions which would be a part of the score for our team. Apparently there were four messengers out on the course, my team found two. Two members of my team were tremendous “trail guides”. During the last 2-3 hours my guess is that the two of them found 9 out of 10 arrows. While half of the team had given up, the two of them were finding arrow after arrow. The overall “hike” took about five hours. It did not help that I was feeling less than 100% that day. Therefore walking around the plains of Burkina Faso, in midday sun, while staring at the ground for hours looking for arrows, was not the most enjoyable time for me. I enjoyed Emily’s comment at the end: “you can tell this game was created by men”. Meanwhile, Haley had a great time with hike saying that it has been one of her favorite parts of the camp and she wouldn’t mind doing it every week. Eventually all of the teams reached the destination where they gathered everybody together and we had dinner (which was a meal unlike what I’ve ever had before). The activity ended with a return hike back to camp. The five of us white people (the only white people for miles) came away looking at least a little red from the sun. Fortunately, there were not any major burns from the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment