Yesterday morning at school I sat down at a table in the cafeteria full of 2nd grade boys. The boy sitting on my right immediately put his head down when I sat beside him. He whispered something to his friend and then his friend yelled out, “I DON’T WANT TO TRADE PLACES WITH YOU!” Nice, right? Ha. The teacher then said to him, “In a few years you’ll look at this as a missed opportunity, having a pretty girl sitting next to you.” I knew then what was going on, as the boy, Robert, got up to leave I made sure to tell him bye, which only made him blush.
So that was a good start to the day. We headed off to Headstart and I was greeted with hugs from some of the children instantly. The best part of the morning was getting to play with play-doh!. I decided to make a walrus and a shark out of it and that led to the kids basically wanting me to make a zoo of play-doh! animals. I was decently good at it and think I may have found my next calling in life.
My play-doh! walrus.
Around lunchtime I got to go with the main teacher for Headstart, Edna, and 5 kids who will be kindergarteners next year to the cafeteria at school for lunch. It was good to see some of the other team members there with their kids and interact with them a little bit. After lunch we went back and played with play-doh! some more.
Jozlyn with her play-doh and dinosaurs.
Being sassy with our food gloves.
When our work done there for the day Marc and I headed back to the school to get things started for the carnival that night. We worked in the kitchen with 3 other team members producing mass quantities of hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, and tacos. There were tons of people here for carnival, they said about half the town came out (which for here is a lot). After slaving over nacho cheese I decided to go check out our booth in the gym (where the main part of carnival was) and see how we were doing. Our booth was a bean bag toss game and we were pretty popular if I do say so.
The ladies at carnival.
Carnival was quite the experience. They even had a dunking booth outside in this 30 degree weather! We had so much fun interacting with the community and the kids we have gotten to know. I even saw Robert, from earlier that morning, in fact he dragged me to the carnival jail 8 eights, with me kicking and screaming. I would be standing around talking to the team and he would creep up behind me, grab me around the waist, and pull me all the way to jail. My ribs may be a little bruised but it was all in good fun.
From one of the eight times I was put in jail. As you can see, Robert napped a few of my team members as well.
When we got our fill of the carnival activities we went back to the bunk house and had reflection. I just have to say that I am so impressed with the team and how they are letting this experience challenge them. We talked a lot about recognizing our privileges back home and how that influences the experience for us. A reflection activity we did was A-HA! moments, which is basically saying a thought that you had during the day that makes you recognize your privilege or a new way of thinking. A lot of us talked about family, myself included. I said that I am so fortunate to come from a family where our love is forefront. We constantly tell each other "I love you" and "I'm proud of you". I am so grateful for that and I recognize that there are children in this community and all over the world that may never hear those things from their parents/siblings/grandparents, etc. My parents have always wanted me to pursue my dreams and have said that the world is my oyster and I can do anything that I put my mind to. For that, I am forever grateful.
"And when you dream, dream big
As big as the ocean blue
'Cause when you dream it might come true
And when you dream, dream big."
-Ryan Shupe
You don't look good in jail, remember that, heehee. Get a picture of Robert for me. I love you Peanut!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mom