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Today Kim & I sported our Pittsburgh pride. (If you're wondering why my Steelers shirt is in Hebrew, my brother bought it for me in Israel when he went on Birthright last year.)
We headed to the orphanage on schedule and on our way we saw many people heading the same direction, all wearing nice clothes. Church is a big part of their culture and everyone attends, either the 10 a.m. service or the night service at 5 p.m. Each service lasts three hours!
As we drove up the sharp driveway into the orphanage for the second day, (still exhausted from the day before,) we were greeted with many more kids than were there the day before. From right off the bat, the children were much more open and less shy than they were the day before. We took all of this as signs that we must have done something right on the first day of camp. :-)
We played "hens & lions" while we waited for soccer camp group to arrive. When the boys left for soccer, we reviewed with the girls the first part of the dance we had learned the day before and taught them the next part. They seemed to continue to catch on well and April worked on refining their movemements. Then we played a game where two teams were called at a time to race to the center of a circle to see who could capture a ball first to earn a point for their team.
During this game, one of our translators, Florence, (who's 7 months pregnant,) started to not feel good. It's important to note the difference in cultures in this sort of situation. Women work hard there through their pregnancies and a woman does not want to seem unable to work, even if she is in pain or uncomfortable. She sat down to the side at first and then she went inside. April found her with her head down on a desk inside the office and she admitted that she "wasn't feeling good" and then basically collapsed against a wall and lay on the floor of the office for a bit. Of course this concerned us all and we wanted to fetch her husband Fabian, (both of them we knew from last year and are Willa's friends,) who we thought was helping out at the soccer camp, but she did not want him bothered and was satisfied to lay down on a bed for a little with a cold washcloth on her forehead. I felt terrible. It was hot with no fans or air conditioning and this woman was very pregnant and not feeling well. I wish I could have done something. The other translator fanned her for awhile and I stopped in later to check on her. She kept assuring me that she'd be out soon to help and I kept assuring her that she needed to rest. She eventually did come out and said she was feeling better and continued to help at the camp. Strong woman.
The girls had fun making name plates in the morning. We gave them plain sheets of paper to write their names on and then lots of craft supplies to decorate it with. Stickers, confetti, colored paper, glue, etc. was everywhere! Each of us made one too and it was a lot of fun, I don't think I've drawn like that since I was that age!
Then we played some until lunchtime. After lunch, we handed out the name plates but each person got someone else's name. We then went around the circle and each girl had to say something nice about the girl whose name was on the name plate they were handed. It was a great confidence builder for the girls. They had our names too and one of the translators had to say something about me. I think she said I was "kind, always quiet, and sociable", but I couldn't pay too much attention, I was worried about Benita.
Benita is the girl I feel like I have connected with the most here and I was very excited that she was placed into my group, "The Hens". Yesterday when I sat next to her and drew with her in the dirt, I had noticed on her knee what looked like a huge, deep cut, that had closed up slightly so I knew it was old. It didn't seem to bother her but I couldn't stop starring at it, it just looked so bad. Today the deep scar and a scar near it (there are many scars on her knee,) opened up a bit and she was limping around. Sorry to be so gruesome but that's what it looked like. She kept wandering off and sitting to the side and I tried to keep her company. Poor Benita was not feeling good but when a little girl needed her help, she took her by the hand and limped all the way over to where she needed to be lead. I had several people look at it and tomorrow they will take her to the hospital. I hope she is okay. Once people started making a big fuss about it by the end of the day, she shed a few tears, but up until then she didn't even cry at all! I had "Benita" for the nameplate to say something nice about and I chose to say, "Benita is patient, kind and very brave."
After the name plate game, we played something called "The Farmer & the Cow" where "the farmer" closes her eyes and spins around five times in the center of a circle and musical instruments are passed around the circle and when she stops she has to find "the cow" (the tambourine.)
Then Willa pulled up, and all the children swarmed singing, "WILLA". They all know and love her so much. Camp was wrapping up but the men in charge named Leonce, Emanuel and Emanuel (yes there are two Emanuels,) had something special planned for us. Dancers arrived to perform for us and the next thing you know, a truckload of "mazungas" (foreigners) pulled up. Apparently the dancers were coming to perform for the first lady from the Virgin Islands and that was her entourage. But when they arrived we discovered it was actually just her entourage, the first lady was sick and had been laid over in Kenya. Actually a few people from their group were laid over in London and in Kenya and they were missing 13 bags!! The group that had arrived were students and their teachers, (one originally from NJ,) that will return tomorrow to paint the walls of the orphanage. And supposedly tomorrow the first lady will be with them... So we'll see...
The performance was lovely and I got pulled in to dance with the dancers near the end. And then it was time to head back to the hotel. We grabbed a "quick" dinner (2 hours instead of 5,) journaled, and headed to a well-deserved rest.
