kerch - Day one; 7/09, 10.55 pm
Its very late and we've just come back from a late night swim in the sea ! the water had phosphorous in it and shimered like the reflection of thousands of stars from the night sky. The last few days have been crazy; we left at 1.30 from cambridge, meetng the london bunch at heathrow at four. We then caught the 6.25 plane to frankfurt to catch the connection to ukrain. However the first flight took longer than expected, so it was a bt crazy trying to get twenty two people's passports checked an securtified (is that a word?) in forty five minuts, it seems ok, but frankfurt is massive and we were runing all over the place. I forgot to take my watc of at secrurity in this minor panic and ths got stopped, allothough i did explain that i could take my watch of and walk through the gate again they insited of patting me vigourously all over, which i wouldnt have minded as much if they hant made me take my belt of first and i happened to be wearing the baggiest linen trousers you ever saw! i ended up in a crouched position so they wouldnt fall down, whilst the rest of the youth continued to watch and laugh! ah well, at least we made the plane :)
Today all we really did was organising the next ten days an adjusting to the culture. The people here are lovely; you really feel their imense hospitality . I kow it may sound odd but everyone is so welcoming, you cant help but feel comfortable.
I can't wait for what tomorrow holds:
Day three: 09/09, 07.00 am
Yesterday was very reaxing, and despite the thunderstorm warnigs the wather was very good for eglish standards, so when you wernt i one of your various meeting subjects (crafts/sports/morning exercise) the beach which is only ten minuets away was visited by nearly all. The evening activities envolved eating smurs, an american concoction envolvng melting you marshmallows over the campfire (yeah, there was one of them too) and squising it with chocolate inside two crackers thus melting the chocolate. a delicious , different, tasty snack. We also played numerous campfire 'bonding games' as well as limbo and the occassional line dance! I found myself surprised at how early it was, as the sunsets so eary here, even when its hot, so after about an hour and a half in arkness i realised it wa only 9.00!
This morning the children arrive so i thought i would fill in the blog before my 'roomies' wake up! hmm breakfast at 8.15...
Day three : 09/09, 11.00 pm
Today was D-day, the kids arrived!
I am aboutly wacked so this gonna be short...
They arrived in dribs and drabs some time between 10 and 3. They were immediatly checd for lice and infectious deseases. I was put on baloon modeling outised the queue for the 'hospital' to entertain the chldren whie the were waiting, and afterwards, with the children who did have lice (the kids with infectious diseases were immediatly sent home, although i dont think there were any) as the children with lice had to have there hair shaved of, i think i found it much sadder than any of them, one girl had long wavy blond hair down to her waist, but didnt seem that thrown by it to me, i guess i just kept giving her balloon flowers and dogs and the occaional hat, to be that upset, also they have probaby been through much more than i could dream of, and by loosing their hair they get to come to the camp! I was on ward 2, which was the second oldest ward out of four, so ruffly 11/12 year olds, althought there was an 8 and a 12 year old, as they had siblings/friends in the ward. I put them to bed with Eliasah and we told them about ourselves.
day four: 10.09, 10.50.
aparently it was to 'cold' go to the beach today but on english standards it was pretty warm, instead we played scavenger hunts with them and various sports, this evening we had the opening ceremony which was simply hillarious! we all dressed up as super heroes, i was batgirl, but among the bunch there was a superman a wonderwoman and a bannana girl! the kids all had to be invloved, naming there wards (the dorms were they slept and did most of the activities, ward 1 being the oldest and ward 4 being the youngest) super kids, super family, super village and happy teenagers. it was a great evening, and a brilliant firt 'full day' my day ended by reading to my ward the story of ''the happy prince''
day six; 7.00
devotional start at 7, and my whole rom was up and so i got woken up to, but i decided not to get out of bed so i filled in my journal istead, an explanation of why i am up so early. In the mornings i go to my ward at 7.30 and do there hair and then do the morning exercises at 7.50 with breakfast at 8.15, however yesterday it was tipping it down, so we gave the kids some wht of a lie in as we can do morning exercises, getting them up at 7.50 to do the girls hair, due to the rain we watched a film (the tale of desperoux the mouse) and in the afternoon interest groups inside, such as needle work hair and make up, christmas tree making, some completated constructinthe boys seemed to enjoy envolving LEDs and duck duck goose. i myself did facepaints. despite the rain it was good fun. the story today was ruth an wasvery inspiring.
day six:8.20
so the rest of my team are clearing up the crafts, which were duck puppets, that everyone loved, so i thought i would fill this in now to get out of it (i did help te last few days) iknow i know, excuses! the story today was david and goliath and was acted out very funnily by two men in skirts, great fun all round! as it was raining gain, i found myself watch the incredible in russin with various children on my lps, a very bizarre situation, but we have it at home and i have watched it enough to know the plot and the good jokes so i didnt feel that left out. it was james birthday today o this evening we are going to the beach for a late night campfire (he sun came out around 12 and 'dried up all the rain') but as you arnt llowed to come back on your own and they threw around 'latest 1' i thought i would catch up on some sleep, as i am feeling a bit sleep deprived and generally exhausted, what with the hypernes of the kids and the long days and late nights. i hope the wether stays good for tomorrow o that we can finally take the kids to the beach!
Its very late and we've just come back from a late night swim in the sea ! the water had phosphorous in it and shimered like the reflection of thousands of stars from the night sky. The last few days have been crazy; we left at 1.30 from cambridge, meetng the london bunch at heathrow at four. We then caught the 6.25 plane to frankfurt to catch the connection to ukrain. However the first flight took longer than expected, so it was a bt crazy trying to get twenty two people's passports checked an securtified (is that a word?) in forty five minuts, it seems ok, but frankfurt is massive and we were runing all over the place. I forgot to take my watc of at secrurity in this minor panic and ths got stopped, allothough i did explain that i could take my watch of and walk through the gate again they insited of patting me vigourously all over, which i wouldnt have minded as much if they hant made me take my belt of first and i happened to be wearing the baggiest linen trousers you ever saw! i ended up in a crouched position so they wouldnt fall down, whilst the rest of the youth continued to watch and laugh! ah well, at least we made the plane :)
Today all we really did was organising the next ten days an adjusting to the culture. The people here are lovely; you really feel their imense hospitality . I kow it may sound odd but everyone is so welcoming, you cant help but feel comfortable.
I can't wait for what tomorrow holds:
Day three: 09/09, 07.00 am
Yesterday was very reaxing, and despite the thunderstorm warnigs the wather was very good for eglish standards, so when you wernt i one of your various meeting subjects (crafts/sports/morning exercise) the beach which is only ten minuets away was visited by nearly all. The evening activities envolved eating smurs, an american concoction envolvng melting you marshmallows over the campfire (yeah, there was one of them too) and squising it with chocolate inside two crackers thus melting the chocolate. a delicious , different, tasty snack. We also played numerous campfire 'bonding games' as well as limbo and the occassional line dance! I found myself surprised at how early it was, as the sunsets so eary here, even when its hot, so after about an hour and a half in arkness i realised it wa only 9.00!
This morning the children arrive so i thought i would fill in the blog before my 'roomies' wake up! hmm breakfast at 8.15...
Day three : 09/09, 11.00 pm
Today was D-day, the kids arrived!
I am aboutly wacked so this gonna be short...
They arrived in dribs and drabs some time between 10 and 3. They were immediatly checd for lice and infectious deseases. I was put on baloon modeling outised the queue for the 'hospital' to entertain the chldren whie the were waiting, and afterwards, with the children who did have lice (the kids with infectious diseases were immediatly sent home, although i dont think there were any) as the children with lice had to have there hair shaved of, i think i found it much sadder than any of them, one girl had long wavy blond hair down to her waist, but didnt seem that thrown by it to me, i guess i just kept giving her balloon flowers and dogs and the occaional hat, to be that upset, also they have probaby been through much more than i could dream of, and by loosing their hair they get to come to the camp! I was on ward 2, which was the second oldest ward out of four, so ruffly 11/12 year olds, althought there was an 8 and a 12 year old, as they had siblings/friends in the ward. I put them to bed with Eliasah and we told them about ourselves.
day four: 10.09, 10.50.
aparently it was to 'cold' go to the beach today but on english standards it was pretty warm, instead we played scavenger hunts with them and various sports, this evening we had the opening ceremony which was simply hillarious! we all dressed up as super heroes, i was batgirl, but among the bunch there was a superman a wonderwoman and a bannana girl! the kids all had to be invloved, naming there wards (the dorms were they slept and did most of the activities, ward 1 being the oldest and ward 4 being the youngest) super kids, super family, super village and happy teenagers. it was a great evening, and a brilliant firt 'full day' my day ended by reading to my ward the story of ''the happy prince''
day six; 7.00
devotional start at 7, and my whole rom was up and so i got woken up to, but i decided not to get out of bed so i filled in my journal istead, an explanation of why i am up so early. In the mornings i go to my ward at 7.30 and do there hair and then do the morning exercises at 7.50 with breakfast at 8.15, however yesterday it was tipping it down, so we gave the kids some wht of a lie in as we can do morning exercises, getting them up at 7.50 to do the girls hair, due to the rain we watched a film (the tale of desperoux the mouse) and in the afternoon interest groups inside, such as needle work hair and make up, christmas tree making, some completated constructinthe boys seemed to enjoy envolving LEDs and duck duck goose. i myself did facepaints. despite the rain it was good fun. the story today was ruth an wasvery inspiring.
day six:8.20
so the rest of my team are clearing up the crafts, which were duck puppets, that everyone loved, so i thought i would fill this in now to get out of it (i did help te last few days) iknow i know, excuses! the story today was david and goliath and was acted out very funnily by two men in skirts, great fun all round! as it was raining gain, i found myself watch the incredible in russin with various children on my lps, a very bizarre situation, but we have it at home and i have watched it enough to know the plot and the good jokes so i didnt feel that left out. it was james birthday today o this evening we are going to the beach for a late night campfire (he sun came out around 12 and 'dried up all the rain') but as you arnt llowed to come back on your own and they threw around 'latest 1' i thought i would catch up on some sleep, as i am feeling a bit sleep deprived and generally exhausted, what with the hypernes of the kids and the long days and late nights. i hope the wether stays good for tomorrow o that we can finally take the kids to the beach!
day eight: 7.00
yesterday was the midpoint of the kids being here, the first day we went to the beach and for the bedtime stories in my ward, the best evening yet. we were teaching them how to use the bible they were given, then had a competition to see who could find the verse the fastest and then asking what they thought the verse meant, the were so responsive, some of the answers we got were so insightful, for example one of the girls admitted that she finds it hard to believe in god, when he doesnt appear to answer her prayers, and another explained that by loving god you can love other people more easily, these are 8-12 year olds, who are not necessarily from any biblical background, the speed at which they have grown with us and god amazes me, for example, on the first night, one of the girls prayed, by the second night we got giggles, third we go a sentence, but yesterday we had a volunteer! among all this joy one of the lads in my ward broke his arm in two places during the wide game on day 7, and will have an operation on tuesday, meaning he will miss out on the rest of the week. prayer always needed.
I hope that gives you all some idea of how the team is doing. Please pray for us.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Give me your genius!