It was kind of a tough start to the day. Let me explain. On a minor note, I was planning to go for a run with Karen and Jeff, but I discovered that my watch had decided to give up the ghost. When I looked at my watch, it said, 5:30 am, but Sheila promptly informed me that it was, in fact, 7:50 am. Oops.
Then, breakfast proved to be a tad unpalatable as well. Today it was what appeared to be ground plantains (which I think were supposed to be a replica of corn bread material) and a bland chili to accompany it. I hated to be a weinie, but I opted for a breakfast bar instead.
After breakfast, Mike and I grabbed a few minutes on the front step of the main house, just to catch up a bit. Haylee wandered by, came up to the step, sat down, didn't smile, and wouldn't talk. Something was up. Finally, she admitted that she had a stomach ache. We asked her if she wanted some Pepto, but she declined.
At the same moment, Erika shot through the gate by the cafeteria and made a beeline for us. She was crying because SHE had a stomach ache. Apparently, she had lain down on a bench in the auditorium, and Sheila had told her to leave, so she went to find me. So, I rounded both of them up and brought them back to the room. When we got there, we discovered that Rachel was there too, sick, so I put a fan directly on each of them, filled up their water bottles with Powerade, and told them to rest. Faith also recommended that they each down a water bottle and Gatorade within the hour.
Shortly thereafter, Rachel and Erika both barfed and rallied within a couple of hours. Haylee wasn't so lucky. Her illness manifested itself in a different region, so she didn't really perk up until the afternoon. I suppose it could be argued that the girls would have done just fine on their own. After all, there was nothing that I really could do for any of them to make them feel better. Sometimes, though, it's just comforting to have a "mom" around, and I figured if that's the only reason why I was supposed to go on this trip, it was enough. Yeah, I missed the small group activities in the morning, and I think some people disagreed with my decision, but in my estimation, it was more important for me to be where I was. If they wanted me there, I wasn't going to leave, and that was the end of that.
By lunch time, everyone had her "sea legs" again. The afternoon meant activities, so I put on my bandanna and headed out to play. As usual, it was hot and humid, so the outdoor, afternoon activities would mean one thing: sweat. . .and the sun truly was HOT!
Megs, Catherine, and I joined a group, and we accompanied the group through ten stations of activities. None of us are very fluent in Spanish, so we were blessed to have a young man step up to the plate who not only wanted us to be involved in the activities; he was also willing to translate for us. His name was Abel, and he was awesome.
The first game that Abel explained to us was a caterpillar game. One team would alternately pass a ball over the head and between the legs while the other team formed a tight-knit circle around which one of the team members would run. It was a timed game, and I think the winner basically was the team who could run the most circles in the allotted time. It was kind of weird and intense at the same time.
After the first contest, we discovered that we were in the "5" group. They had a cheer (which I can only remember bits and pieces of since it was in Spanish), and their team name was "King of Kings."
The second game was a water balloon toss with a blanket. The object was for the team to lob a water balloon over the volleyball net, or catch a lobbed balloon. We won that contest simply because the opposing team biffed the lob, and it back-splashed them.
Next was a teamwork game on two planks of wood. We had to select 10 team members to complete the task. Basically, each member had to move from one end of the plank to the other without leaving the plank, which meant he had to step over everybody else.
Another contest was called "Crossing the Rio (river)." The whole team had to hold hands and step across three boards in order to cross the rio. The rules were that only two feet could be on a board at any given time, and if you fell off the board, you had to start all over.
The most interesting contest of the day was a game involving liquid. Before the activities had started, we had seen a large vat of (smurf) blue water. Upon further investigation, we saw the that smurf-blue water had been created by using latex (yes, LATEX) paint diluted by water. This wasn't any garden-variety food coloring people; it was paint. The object of the game was for team members to sit, compressed tightly together. Then, using a the bottom of a 2 liter bottle poked with holes, the smurf-water had to be passed all the way to the back of the line, over the contestants heads, into a bucket. The team with the most water in the bucket by the end of the allotted time would win. Megs, Catherine, and I looked at each other and the paint for a long time. If we did this game, the damage would be permanent, no matter how hard they tried to convince us that it would "wash out." At first, we decided that we weren't going to do it, but Harold cruised by at that moment and said that he had done it, and so had Karen. Fine, we weren't going to be upstaged, so all three of us decided to participate. We just made sure that we were at the end of the line (less drips that way).
The next contest involved eating. I was blindfolded and had to feed an egg(raw) and sugar mixture to my teammates until the bowl was empty. Gross. Megs and Catherine lucked out because the mixture was eaten up before it was their turns. Whew.
The next game was like a combination of Red Light/Green Light and Rock, Paper, Scissors. Only the rock, paper, scissors was giant, witch, dwarf. It may sound kind of weird, but it was one of the most fun games we played. It took a long time for us to win too.
Dragon was the next contest. Each team formed a chain, and at the end was a hankerchief "tail." The object was to try to grab the "tail" of the opposing team without breaking the chain. If you broke (or if your tail was stolen), you lost.
The last game was a soccer (futbol) match. It was complicated by the fact that the kicker and the goalie had to spin around a bat seven times before kicking or defending the goal. The most goals wins.
Our afternoon was very full and fun, but by the time we were finished, we were boiling. Our next destination was the river in order to cool off.
With Daniel's assistance as translator, Jonathan was able to listen to the note that Cassandra had written him and receive the friendship bracelet that she had made for him.
For all I knew, it could actually be full of garbage and toxic waste, but it smelled just as fresh as a Minnesota river. Even though the current was running very fast, Harold and Rachel made it across the river. (Sometime before the campers had arrived, someone had installed a rope from one side of the river to the other to assist those who wanted to cross the river and/or to keep "floaters" from heading downstream). Unfortunately, the current was just too strong for me, so I stayed put.
Mike Buer and Karen Twedt joined us a few minutes later. Both had been involved with the afternoon's activities, and both needed to cool off. Unfortunately for Mike, he had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction during his dip. Apparently, his swim trunks were securely fastened, and after diving into the water, he felt them slip over his feet. Fortunately, he had worn compression shorts underneath his trunks, so all was not tragic. We just had a good laugh over it.
A few minutes later, a young kid by the shore pulled his blue trunks from the water and lifted them over his head. Mike starts yelling, "Oh, sorry, those are mine." I wish you could have seen the look on that kid's face. Immediately thereafter, all the kids start fanning out away from all of us, especially Mike. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.
After a while of bobbing and talking, we decided to jump off a platform (Harold, me, Rocky, Catherine, Rachel, Mike, Karen, Nick, Luke, and Jorge). This platform was about four or five feet off the river, so it was more or less a diving board. Rocky, Catherine and Karen got a bit more daring and decided to jump off the cliff, which was a distance of about 12 feet.
The evening meal consisted of a cheeseburger and fries (yep, not making that up). And as can be expected, the worship service was just as peppy as the previous evening.
Interestingly enough, after worship that evening, the Ecuadorians started playing a rather interesting game. We gringos were quite perplexed by it, and for somewhat obvious reasons, declined to play it. Basically, the game was a form of intense leap frog in which the Ecuadorian males would form a playing platform by putting one guy's head between the legs of another. Well, you get the idea. It was pretty entertaining for the gringo kids who took lots of pictures because they figured that no one would believe them.
No comments:
Post a Comment