Day 5: Water Buffalo and Ice Cream

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Day 5: Brought to you by Siena and Tessa

Fifth day and we're still going strong! We woke up early on Saturday, and got right to work; as the kids do chores every morning, today we had the previlige to help them. We distributed sand over the playground and when got there, the boys were already hard at work. Now that may seem simple enough, however, here in India they do not use your typical Canadian shovel. We used large pan like bowls (with very sharp edges) to move the fresh sand over the playground. We stood in long lines, practically throwing the pans to each other just to save time. Unfortunately, the sharp edges wreaked some havoc on our forearms and minor injures insued. Amy is a great first aid administrator. The band-aids, in bright colours, did nothing to keep us under the radar.

After a healthy breakfast with lots of fresh fruit and devo's, we were lead on a nature walk, by our new friend Josh (from Germany), to a nearby lake. On this cultural walk, we saw water buffalo having a good bath in the lake, which compelled many of us to start singing the water buffalo song from veggie tales. This great view of Nagpur's main water source, called Gorewada Lake, was astonishing. Joshua informed us that just last Wednesday, 3 boys from the village died swimming in the lake because of the strong undertow. The locals use the water source as a swimming hole but Joshua said that hardly any of them know how to swim - very sad.

We wanted to see more, but we had to rush back to help prepare for a Teachers' Appreciation service. That consisted of us putting together snacks and sharing what it was like to be a teacher in Canada. The teachers from the school were able to ask many question about our school system in Canada and although the students had snuck out to play with the kids, we heard that they were eager to learn what they could and they had to tell them to stop asking question because time had ran out.

We had free time after, which we used wisely, playing hacky sack and spinning tops with the kids ... or at least trying to. After about an hour of playing, we couldn't take the heat any longer, and most of us congregated in the one room on the property with air conditioning. Well crowded in a small room no bigger than a pineapple, we all tried to learn as much Hindi and Marathi as Errol could teach us in an hour...not much came out of it.

We were scheduled to play games with the kids after lunch in the large dining room so not knowing exactly what we were doing, we headed over anticipating a good time. We split up into groups and tryed to play simple card games with them such as Uno and Go fish, but some of us had to resort to the Hokey Pokey.

We got to give the kids to ice cream and it was awesome to serve them. It was fun but long, because it wasn't just a simple line up. The kids (all 653 of them) lined up in rows, with one icecream scooper to fill 660 cones ... you can imagine the suspense. It was worth the wait to see the kids light up when the rare treat was handed to them. Don't worry, only one ice cream cone was dropped.

It was a full day but there was still more. After dinner, we joined the kids for their movie night. We watched Home Alone, and the kids thought the slap-stick comedy was hilarious. After words we stumbled back to our rooms for a shower and sleep, but then the power went out - so, now shower tonight.

Please pray that the team continues to stay rested and strong. There are new relationships forming between the team members and locals - we ask you to pray that God continues to strengthen those relationships and His name may flourish in Nagpur.

Until next time,

Siena and Tessa

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