Today was an awesome day! First of all I just wanted to let you know I’m writing you from our house! We finally got the internet to work. We had gone to the internet cafe downtown a few nights ago but then it lost it’s signal and we’ve been unable to communicate. But it’s working now! I won’t even begin to tell you the number of emails I’ve missed since Friday! Lots of work to do but I’m so excited to work from our new home!
Jose and I haven’t had much time to explore the town. This is a very historical village. We have two groups here with us right now – Pleasant Valley Baptist Church and Feed My Starving Children. We took them on a tour of the town. We walked in the poorest zone and all along the coastline. We found another fort! Pretty cool. We also found some cannons and cannon balls. We found a building that’s shaped like a cave. This is where they used to make gunpowder back in the 1800’s. The air is really cool in there. Grant said he might sleep in there tonight!
We met the townspeople all along the walk today and invited the children to come to our VBS at 2:00. We found amazing places you could snorkel – just absolutely beautiful rocks and little caves. We had no idea how much history was still intact in this village. It’s pretty incredible.
At 2:00pm we had 200 children – that’s right – 200 children show up for VBS! This is the first VBS we’ve ever done here. The children didn’t know what to expect. Pleasant Valley had prepared a puppet show. The children have NEVER seen a puppet show. We had crafts, they did handprints on papers, made little telescopes, sang songs, played games, and received a few small gifts. The children kept coming and coming. Children of all ages. It was really neat to see them experience this for the first time. It was sort of an organized chaos. We did it on the street. The kids really behaved themselves well. There was no fighting or pushing. The older kids weren’t stealing from the younger kids. It really went well. I know the Americans were a little overwhelmed and at times it seemed a little crazy – but that is NORMAL for VBS here. We will do another one tomorrow. The children told me they were going to invite all their friends! I can’t wait to see the turn out.
The Mole is kind of located in a cove. The group took two motor boats out today to explore some of the caves and to visit the land right across from the Mole. I don’t do boats – so I didn’t go with them. But that’s where they are now. They’ll do a little exploring and swimming and then come back for dinner at 6pm. Tonight we plan to just play basketball and soccer with the kids. You should have seen the group last night. Even though they were so tired from the trip here – they were all out and about. This is the kind of town where you can go outside the hotel at 8pm and not have to worry that you don’t have an interpreter with you. The street lights are on from 7p-10pm. I encouraged the group to take soccer balls out when the lights come on and start a game with the kids. This morning before breakfast the group had already gone to the market and spent time with the people. I LOVE IT.
The first few days here have been rough for Jose and I but we found such encouragement today. Just seeing how excited the children are – seeing all the Americans out fellowshipping – it’s been such a boost to our morale and a reminder why we are here.