A Successful Wednesday at VBS

As we arrived in our van at the worksite, the 20 early bird children cheered and jumped with joy.  Our hearts leaped with warmth to think that the children were so glad to see us!

After the usual bread and peanut butter breakfast, 75 children waited eagerly on benches under the tarp for the lesson of the day.  Carolyn delivered the Bible story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  Of course, Michelle translated.  Carolyn taught them a song with motions about the 2 fish and 5 loaves which they sang with gusto.  Then they created and decorated a fish from a paper plate.  Our team pitched in to staple the tails and distribute the googly eyes.  All ages seemed pleased with the results.

As we collected the paper plate fish, a sudden shout erupted.  The children had discovered Carolyn and Parker blowing bubbles.  Off they raced to catch the bubbles.  This continued for about 20 minutes!  Then we tried a relay race with beach balls and the children loved that too!  We learned that our music man Stevenson was unable to come today, but he sent 2 young men to teach 15 older children a dance for the Friday performance.

It was time for lunch.  Today the ladies served a spicy corn dish.  Very tasty!  Michelle tried a new approach to serving the food.  She had the benches brought to the eating area under the trees and had the children sit tightly side by side.  Young people brought the plates to them.  This worked very well.  She also handed out numbers to the adults so that we would know how many we had fed.  It appeared that 180 people were fed today.

 After some quiet circle games with young children, we departed the worksite about 2:30pm to see the Presidential Palace and other downtown sights.  The Palace looked just as it did the day after the destruction of the earthquake.  The tent city was smaller across the street and the Methodist school, College Bird, was partially rebuilt and the rubble cleared.  They will open on time on Sept 5th.

Then home we went filling our senses with the sights and sounds of  Port au Prince.  Haitian people purposefully walking, street peddlers selling everything under the sun, and cars and motorcycles moving as fast as they dared through the pot-holed streets.

Back at the guest house, we showered, ate, and planned for tomorrow.  We will be acting out the story of the Good Samaritan for the children and then giving some of them a chance to be the actors.

An amazing sight today was the cutting down of a tall, wide tree with a machete!   Unfortunately, the tree was in the way of the security.wall that is being rebuilt.  Bob and Don and Parker moved more stones for that wall.

This was day of fun for me!

Sharon