Camp has been so amazingly fun, awesome, and incredible. It was so hard to lea
ve everyone! I´m going to miss the kids, as well as all the other people who came to help out.
The one hour bus ride to and from camp was one of the highlights. We would always sing the whole way. Because not everyone could speak English, and neither could everyone speak Spanish, we sang in both languages. It was fun finding the songs we sing in English all the time, then singing them in Spanish.
The day usually started out with a skit done by the volunteers. The theme was about something the kids needed to work on, whether it be sha
ring, listening, being polite, not cutting in line, or hitting. They were hilarious, and I think really helped the kids remember better than just telling them what to and not to do.
From there, the kids went to their different stations;
In sports, and games the older two groups played dodgeball, baseball, capture the flag, and a variation of volleyball. The younger kids enjoyed limbo, and ¨¿Que hora es Señor lobo?¨ of which Janeen, and Dave were notorious. Dave because
the kids loved playing it with him, and Janeen because instead of saying it was ¨time for lunch¨ during the game, she said ¨time to die¨!
In music class, the kids learned different songs, specifically about Noah´s Ark (the theme of camp) with hand motions, and sometimes insturments. The whole two weeks we worked on songs to present at on the last day of camp.
During Bible time, Noah´s Ark was talked about as well, showing how it was a a picture of how we, if we belong to the Lord, we will be saved from judgement. They also learned about different kinds of animals, and the amazing ways the Lord has made them.
Every day we had a ¨special¨
where those working at the camp of different nationalities would present their country. Mexico (Rafa, Sol, Baruc, and Lety) presented first, Canada (AmyJo, Bethany, Janeen, then Micah, and Hanna helped out too) played hockey with the kids, and has a ¨Canadian mountie¨- Lee, come in riding on a horse. Peru (Daniel and Franklin) made a llama, and had Lety and Paulina model alpaca sweaters. Chile (Paulina did an amazing presentation by herself) taught the kids an Chilean dance. Colombia (Andrea who now lives in Ecuador), Venezuela (Wilmer), Ecuador (the Rules, and all the kids at camp)had some traditional dancers come and perform. Although coming form a biased point of view, I think that the U.S.´s presentation was the best. Natalie, Tim, Janie, Lee, Dave, Christina, Cam, Andy and Jenny, Micah, Hannah and I acted out from the Pilgrims, to Abraham Lincoln, to a Hawiian dance, and basket ball. The kids loved it, and it was a ton of fun.
Meals were neat because it was time we could spend with the kids when we weren´t busy
¨doing¨ something. For lunch , we always had typical Ecuadorian food a first course of soup, then a ¨segundo¨of some type fo meat, with rice. Every day we had a different kind of juice, many of which are only found down here in South America. Yummy...
One of the things I enjoyed the most whether it was before the day´s activities started, or after everything was done, was just hanging out with the kids. Whether it was playing volleyball with a hard soccerball that gives you bruises on you forearms, or holding a little ¨pollito´s¨ hand while they jumped from tire to tire on an obsticle course, or just sitting on the grass talking to one of the kids. Although I wasn´t able to see it, during one of these times, three of the little girls who came to camp (Leaslie, Magali, and Katherine) accepted the Lord as their Saviour!!! It was SO encouraging for me to hear!
After being at camp all day, sometimes we would go and see other places in Quito, like the market, the teleferico (from which you could see the whole city). After getting home, we´d have dinner, then a Bible reading and discussion time in which we would get into groups and search the Word, working together to find answers. It was really neat, and gave us different perspectives.
The deprivation of sleep was definetly work it. The whole two weeks I don´t think very many of us got to bed before 11, and had to get up around 5:30. At night we worked on crafts for the kids, or one of the special presentatons. Debbie was absolutely amazing. She would be up before any of us, then go to bed later at night. Working hard all day, then with the meals at home too. I admire her so much!
My birthday was really awesome. Getting emails from people back h
ome made me feel good, and miss everyone too. At camp, Dean had all the kids sing to me, then after meeting Debbie had made a cake, and a bunch or the girls gave me presents. Unbegnonst to me, a South American tradition is to pour flour and water over someone on their birthday... so that came unexpectedly. The little girls at camp had braided my hair in a bunch of tiny, messy braids, so getting the flour and water mixture out of all that was a disaster! But, it was intertaining for the others. We also went to Crepes and Waffles for dinner. Although I missed my family and friends all back home, it was pretty much one of my best birthdays ever. I honestly didn´t think anyone would do anything, then all this...!!
Last weekend, on Saturday, Dean and Debbie took all us helpers to Mindo , a little town in the cloud forest. It was so much fun! We went on ziplines across the valley. Each had a harness on that was attatched to a pulley which was hooked on to a cable. Most of the time we had to sit back, with our legs crossed on ront of us, one hand holding onto the rope, going from our harness in front of you to the pully on the cable, while the other hand went b
ehind on the cable, to stablize us. But, it was more fun to to tkhe ¨mariposa¨where the pully was attatched to your back and your legs went around the guide´s waist behind you, so you´re perpendicular to the ground, and you can see all the trees, flowers, rivers and everything below you. The craziest, funnest thing you could do was the ¨superman¨where you went down the zipline completely upside down, while the guide held your feet up (some people even did it without the guide). While up there, we saw all kinds of beautiful butterflies and birds. There were even black tucans that had red beaks and hummingbirds with extra long, curved beaks.
Afer the ziplines we went down to the river, and ¨rafted¨down it on large, black intertubes. It was tons of fun. Seven of the tubes were tied together with ropes, and one person went in each tube. Going down the river was crazy. Like the whole thing was full of ginormous rocks that we kind of had to squeese our way through. Our guides spent the whole time in the water pushing us through the narrow spaces. The guide from the other raft took off his helmet and was pouring the freezing water all over us. It was so beautiful there! The river, with all the jungly plants around and just as the sun was going down...
The last day at camp was awesome too. We had relay races for the kids in which they had to jump in a flour sack, to where they put their head on a vertical bat, circled around it eight times, then had to run back, go though a tire back to their team. It was hilarous. They were all so dizzy, and falling all over the place. They had fun with the baloon toss too.
After that the kids got prizes; for the verses they memorized during the week, for getting the most stickers for being happy, helpful, listening well, and working hard.
Before leaving, the owners of Pambaflor gave each one of us a boquet of roses to say thank you for the work we´d done at camp. They were beautiful!
The hardest part was saying goodbye to the kids. They were the sweetest, most adorable kids EVER!! They soaked up every bit of love you gave them, and gave it all and more back to you.
We signed eachother´s shirts and all the kids wanted a ¨recuerdo¨from us. One girl took my sweatshirt and didn´t give it back; every time I came near her she ran away. But, a bunch of the kids were the opposite, and gave me what they had; their name tags. The ones that meant the most to me were A
ndres and Diego. Andres is probably five years old, and most likely the most ill-behaved kid at camp. He never obeyed anyone, and was always running off. But, youcould tell what he really needed was love. After spending some one-on one time with him you could see the difference in his attitude. When I left, he gave me his nametag, and hugged me really tight, and whispered in my ear ¨Te quiero mucho¨. Oh man, I miss that kid. Diego was in the older age group, and always helpful. He was very bright and always knew all the right answers to questions we asked the kids about the Bible. The problem with him though, is from what I heard, he has a really hard home life (no electricity or running water, as well as lives only with his mother and sister), and something apparently happened in his life to the point where he says he no longer believes in God. Both these boys need a lot of prayer. It´s so hard to leave the kids, not knowing how they´re going to turn out, what they´ve understood of the gospel, and if they´ve accepted it or not.
After leaving camp, we rode the bus to some hotsprings about an hour away. The place was amazing. Unlike other ¨thermal baths¨ we´ve been to down here (that is milky brown water in cement lined holes), this had clean water in nice pools with tile floors. The water was heated by the lava in the nearby moutain and came up in springs. There was a series of different pools, from freezing cold (straight from the river) to burning hot (coming directly from the springs) ones you could barely stay in a couple seconds before you felt like your were going to die. It was the perfect place to go after a long week at camp.
During our time in Quito, there were also some very sobering times. First off, Tim´s brother Dan got I a really bad sky-diving accident, breaking his spinal chord, and messing up a bunch of other stuff too. A couple days later, we heard that the camp nurse had been in a really bad car accident with her husband and childern. They were all in the hospital, and one of ther twins was in really bad condition. Later that evenign we heard the little girl hadn´t made it. It was really a shock to us. We had just been with Blanca and at least one of her children at camp, then this happened. She got out of the hospital, as did her husband, but up to the time we left, her other son was still there. We really need to pray for that family. They are Catholic, and we aren´t sure if they´re saved or not. We were still recovering from the news of that family when we heard a cople from Mexico, Norberto adn his Colombian wife Lousia had been in a really bad car accident as well. She was in a com
a, and Norberto wasn´t doin gtoo well either. Most of us there knew them, or at least theri family so it was kidna starteling. It seemed like so many things were going so wrong all at once, but it was so neat to come together in prayer and feel the Christian love for one another, even though not everone knew those who were hurting you could see they were feeling their pain, and praying so much for them. I really think those experiences brought us closer to eachother.
Spending time with all the young people and getting to know so many better was amazing. Everyone had such an awesome time. It was so neat to see how everyone worked SO SO SO well together, and how those who spoke Spanish and those who spoke English got along so well and mixed too. It was so neat how the Lord brought all us together and we had an amazing time.
Paulina, Daniel V., Wilmer and I left that night, did the 36 hour bus ride, and are now back in Lima!
ve everyone! I´m going to miss the kids, as well as all the other people who came to help out.The one hour bus ride to and from camp was one of the highlights. We would always sing the whole way. Because not everyone could speak English, and neither could everyone speak Spanish, we sang in both languages. It was fun finding the songs we sing in English all the time, then singing them in Spanish.
The day usually started out with a skit done by the volunteers. The theme was about something the kids needed to work on, whether it be sha
ring, listening, being polite, not cutting in line, or hitting. They were hilarious, and I think really helped the kids remember better than just telling them what to and not to do.From there, the kids went to their different stations;
In sports, and games the older two groups played dodgeball, baseball, capture the flag, and a variation of volleyball. The younger kids enjoyed limbo, and ¨¿Que hora es Señor lobo?¨ of which Janeen, and Dave were notorious. Dave because
the kids loved playing it with him, and Janeen because instead of saying it was ¨time for lunch¨ during the game, she said ¨time to die¨!In music class, the kids learned different songs, specifically about Noah´s Ark (the theme of camp) with hand motions, and sometimes insturments. The whole two weeks we worked on songs to present at on the last day of camp.
During Bible time, Noah´s Ark was talked about as well, showing how it was a a picture of how we, if we belong to the Lord, we will be saved from judgement. They also learned about different kinds of animals, and the amazing ways the Lord has made them.
Every day we had a ¨special¨
where those working at the camp of different nationalities would present their country. Mexico (Rafa, Sol, Baruc, and Lety) presented first, Canada (AmyJo, Bethany, Janeen, then Micah, and Hanna helped out too) played hockey with the kids, and has a ¨Canadian mountie¨- Lee, come in riding on a horse. Peru (Daniel and Franklin) made a llama, and had Lety and Paulina model alpaca sweaters. Chile (Paulina did an amazing presentation by herself) taught the kids an Chilean dance. Colombia (Andrea who now lives in Ecuador), Venezuela (Wilmer), Ecuador (the Rules, and all the kids at camp)had some traditional dancers come and perform. Although coming form a biased point of view, I think that the U.S.´s presentation was the best. Natalie, Tim, Janie, Lee, Dave, Christina, Cam, Andy and Jenny, Micah, Hannah and I acted out from the Pilgrims, to Abraham Lincoln, to a Hawiian dance, and basket ball. The kids loved it, and it was a ton of fun.Meals were neat because it was time we could spend with the kids when we weren´t busy
¨doing¨ something. For lunch , we always had typical Ecuadorian food a first course of soup, then a ¨segundo¨of some type fo meat, with rice. Every day we had a different kind of juice, many of which are only found down here in South America. Yummy...One of the things I enjoyed the most whether it was before the day´s activities started, or after everything was done, was just hanging out with the kids. Whether it was playing volleyball with a hard soccerball that gives you bruises on you forearms, or holding a little ¨pollito´s¨ hand while they jumped from tire to tire on an obsticle course, or just sitting on the grass talking to one of the kids. Although I wasn´t able to see it, during one of these times, three of the little girls who came to camp (Leaslie, Magali, and Katherine) accepted the Lord as their Saviour!!! It was SO encouraging for me to hear!
After being at camp all day, sometimes we would go and see other places in Quito, like the market, the teleferico (from which you could see the whole city). After getting home, we´d have dinner, then a Bible reading and discussion time in which we would get into groups and search the Word, working together to find answers. It was really neat, and gave us different perspectives.The deprivation of sleep was definetly work it. The whole two weeks I don´t think very many of us got to bed before 11, and had to get up around 5:30. At night we worked on crafts for the kids, or one of the special presentatons. Debbie was absolutely amazing. She would be up before any of us, then go to bed later at night. Working hard all day, then with the meals at home too. I admire her so much!
My birthday was really awesome. Getting emails from people back h
ome made me feel good, and miss everyone too. At camp, Dean had all the kids sing to me, then after meeting Debbie had made a cake, and a bunch or the girls gave me presents. Unbegnonst to me, a South American tradition is to pour flour and water over someone on their birthday... so that came unexpectedly. The little girls at camp had braided my hair in a bunch of tiny, messy braids, so getting the flour and water mixture out of all that was a disaster! But, it was intertaining for the others. We also went to Crepes and Waffles for dinner. Although I missed my family and friends all back home, it was pretty much one of my best birthdays ever. I honestly didn´t think anyone would do anything, then all this...!!Last weekend, on Saturday, Dean and Debbie took all us helpers to Mindo , a little town in the cloud forest. It was so much fun! We went on ziplines across the valley. Each had a harness on that was attatched to a pulley which was hooked on to a cable. Most of the time we had to sit back, with our legs crossed on ront of us, one hand holding onto the rope, going from our harness in front of you to the pully on the cable, while the other hand went b
ehind on the cable, to stablize us. But, it was more fun to to tkhe ¨mariposa¨where the pully was attatched to your back and your legs went around the guide´s waist behind you, so you´re perpendicular to the ground, and you can see all the trees, flowers, rivers and everything below you. The craziest, funnest thing you could do was the ¨superman¨where you went down the zipline completely upside down, while the guide held your feet up (some people even did it without the guide). While up there, we saw all kinds of beautiful butterflies and birds. There were even black tucans that had red beaks and hummingbirds with extra long, curved beaks.Afer the ziplines we went down to the river, and ¨rafted¨down it on large, black intertubes. It was tons of fun. Seven of the tubes were tied together with ropes, and one person went in each tube. Going down the river was crazy. Like the whole thing was full of ginormous rocks that we kind of had to squeese our way through. Our guides spent the whole time in the water pushing us through the narrow spaces. The guide from the other raft took off his helmet and was pouring the freezing water all over us. It was so beautiful there! The river, with all the jungly plants around and just as the sun was going down...
The last day at camp was awesome too. We had relay races for the kids in which they had to jump in a flour sack, to where they put their head on a vertical bat, circled around it eight times, then had to run back, go though a tire back to their team. It was hilarous. They were all so dizzy, and falling all over the place. They had fun with the baloon toss too.
After that the kids got prizes; for the verses they memorized during the week, for getting the most stickers for being happy, helpful, listening well, and working hard.
Before leaving, the owners of Pambaflor gave each one of us a boquet of roses to say thank you for the work we´d done at camp. They were beautiful!
The hardest part was saying goodbye to the kids. They were the sweetest, most adorable kids EVER!! They soaked up every bit of love you gave them, and gave it all and more back to you.
We signed eachother´s shirts and all the kids wanted a ¨recuerdo¨from us. One girl took my sweatshirt and didn´t give it back; every time I came near her she ran away. But, a bunch of the kids were the opposite, and gave me what they had; their name tags. The ones that meant the most to me were A
ndres and Diego. Andres is probably five years old, and most likely the most ill-behaved kid at camp. He never obeyed anyone, and was always running off. But, youcould tell what he really needed was love. After spending some one-on one time with him you could see the difference in his attitude. When I left, he gave me his nametag, and hugged me really tight, and whispered in my ear ¨Te quiero mucho¨. Oh man, I miss that kid. Diego was in the older age group, and always helpful. He was very bright and always knew all the right answers to questions we asked the kids about the Bible. The problem with him though, is from what I heard, he has a really hard home life (no electricity or running water, as well as lives only with his mother and sister), and something apparently happened in his life to the point where he says he no longer believes in God. Both these boys need a lot of prayer. It´s so hard to leave the kids, not knowing how they´re going to turn out, what they´ve understood of the gospel, and if they´ve accepted it or not.After leaving camp, we rode the bus to some hotsprings about an hour away. The place was amazing. Unlike other ¨thermal baths¨ we´ve been to down here (that is milky brown water in cement lined holes), this had clean water in nice pools with tile floors. The water was heated by the lava in the nearby moutain and came up in springs. There was a series of different pools, from freezing cold (straight from the river) to burning hot (coming directly from the springs) ones you could barely stay in a couple seconds before you felt like your were going to die. It was the perfect place to go after a long week at camp.
During our time in Quito, there were also some very sobering times. First off, Tim´s brother Dan got I a really bad sky-diving accident, breaking his spinal chord, and messing up a bunch of other stuff too. A couple days later, we heard that the camp nurse had been in a really bad car accident with her husband and childern. They were all in the hospital, and one of ther twins was in really bad condition. Later that evenign we heard the little girl hadn´t made it. It was really a shock to us. We had just been with Blanca and at least one of her children at camp, then this happened. She got out of the hospital, as did her husband, but up to the time we left, her other son was still there. We really need to pray for that family. They are Catholic, and we aren´t sure if they´re saved or not. We were still recovering from the news of that family when we heard a cople from Mexico, Norberto adn his Colombian wife Lousia had been in a really bad car accident as well. She was in a com
a, and Norberto wasn´t doin gtoo well either. Most of us there knew them, or at least theri family so it was kidna starteling. It seemed like so many things were going so wrong all at once, but it was so neat to come together in prayer and feel the Christian love for one another, even though not everone knew those who were hurting you could see they were feeling their pain, and praying so much for them. I really think those experiences brought us closer to eachother.Spending time with all the young people and getting to know so many better was amazing. Everyone had such an awesome time. It was so neat to see how everyone worked SO SO SO well together, and how those who spoke Spanish and those who spoke English got along so well and mixed too. It was so neat how the Lord brought all us together and we had an amazing time.
Paulina, Daniel V., Wilmer and I left that night, did the 36 hour bus ride, and are now back in Lima!
5 comments:
wow.
Thanks for taking the time to chronicle your adventures at camp. The good times and the sad times. ziplines sound kinda fun!
WOW! It's really interesting to read everything that goes on in SA. I'll probably here all about camp when Janeen gets home!
What an exciting opportunity and experience! ~Tia Loida~ P.S. Lip-smacking thanks to N for the fabulous pork chops!
I'm so glad your b-day did get celebrated. How special! Love you, A. Kathy
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