After we ate, our group went and danced, sang, and built relationships with the kids at the camp. We also listened to personal stories from some of the people who help run the camp. They shared experiences in which they relied heavily on God. They talked about their own upbringing, which unfortunately involved domestic violence. One person even spoke about their upbringing's negative impacts on their daughter’s mental health. All of this conversation really helped our team understand why we are here and why we build these relationships in the first place.
Next, we made some more Ojos de Dios (God’s Eyes) crafts and helped the kids learn and make their own! As for the campers' understanding of the activity, it was hit or miss, but we had a great time!
After these activities, the pastor prayed and asked the kids about their life at home, away from camp. The mood quickly went from happy and loving, to somewhat sad and depressing when he asked the kids if they would be willing to share if there were hurtful words they have heard at home. We were surprised when kids as young as six or seven years old answered with phrases like "worthless, useless, and a waste of time." This was extremely hard to hear, but what was most shocking is that all of the campers seemed so happy and cheerful up until this point. It really goes to show that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover and that you never really know what an individual is going through.
We had a "brief" debrief, which doesn’t happen often (but is welcome)! Afterwards, we served lunch. It was a delicious pizza meal with the kids ... amazing, as usual!
After almuerzo (lunch), we split into two teams. One group accompanied the kids to a lake and sent the first group of campers off. The second group stayed behind at the camp and welcomed the new batch of campers! I was in the second group, where we had a great time, playing games, singing and, of course, dancing! We chopped wood, and Chris built and maintained two fires, before putting me in charge of one of them. Thank you, it's truly an honor! Ainsley, Camille, and I danced and sang with the new group of kids and introduced ourselves to them.
We still had some time left to entertain them, so we broke out good ole’ Uno™️ as well as matching games and a pack or two (or 12) of playing cards. It took some learning and teaching, but we had lots of fun and got to know each other well! The first group got back and we served dinner to the niños and then had dinner for ourselves. Needless to say, it was delicious!
We left the camp at around 7 PM and got back to our hostel a short while later. I look forward to tomorrow and all the opportunities it brings!! ¡Ciao!
- Written by Tyler Schnittker
No comments:
Post a Comment