This was my favorite day of the whole trip. The plan for the day was to visit with the Clementine city school with about 150 kids that morning, then come back to the same school in the afternoon for another 150 kids. As we arrived, we actually had a stage to try out our VBS skit that Sonja had written around the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. Our cast went into one of the empty classrooms to change into their Egyptian and Israelite garb, and the principal helped set up a microphone for sonja. Davis would be Pharoah, and John Clemons would be Moses. Sam was an Israelite, and I got to be a holder of the red sea.
As we were waiting for the skit to begin, I learned a new word for the magic tricks I show the kids. They always like the disappearing ninja trick, but I also added in the floating staff of Moses trick. I heard "otro truco", which as many spanish words is very close to the English spelling, so I started using "truco" for the other kids after that. This is also where I first met my new friends Rafael, Bryan, and Oliver, who really liked the "trucos".
Our skit went over really well, and the kids all cheered when Moses made it through the water, then again when Pharoah was covered by the sea. Davis threw his hat out for some good dramatic flair. Then the Israelites (without Moses) were cheered one last time when they mounted the stage to "La tierra de prometida" (Promised Land). Maximo streamed the whole presentation on Facebook Live, and I bet Davis can still remember his two lines..."No"...then "Bueno".
After the skit, we sang some songs that were also streamed live on Facebook. Sonja did another great job prepping for this section, as we sang "Hay Tomentas", "Cristo me ama", "Yo tengo gozo", "Soldado soy de Jesus", and the crowd favorite "ChuChuWa" which gets all the kids excited and silly before going off to crafts. It was really great to watch on this day as Sam and Jason Aiken took over the Bible Drill game with the kids. Sam and I had talked thru my broken spanish I use with the kids, and he watched me at one of the previous schools, and those guys just jumped right in and went with it. Sam said he even incorporated some new questions with books of the bible and asking "Which Part" to see if they remembered which section that book would be in. He also told me that one sassy girl kept correcting Jason's spanish. Sam said he also had a ringer that kept coming back to play more and more. While they handled that game, I pulled out the ring toss game that Magan had suggested and it was also a hit. The kids would have to repeat Exodus 14:22 prior to throwing the rings at the flamingos. Not a full on memory verse game like we play it here, but too many wanted to play, so it worked efficiently, and we all laughed at my broken spanish that they had to repeat.
And then it was time to leave. My new amigos Rafael and Bryan came up for a picture below, and I got a picture with Oliver and his mom below as well. Oliver also got his mom to take a picture of me and him.
After a quick rest at the day care, we were on our way back, and a highlight of the trip was seeing Bryan still waiting at the school for us to arrive, handing me a note he had written to me. I gave him a big hug, and told him thanks. We repeated the same skit and songs as earlier, and had some fun games like before. I did have the director of the school come up and we had some fairly good small talk, from what I could understand. With my broken spanish and some hand motions, I figured out that the other building on the hill near the school was the kindergarten, and that it needed painted. So I relayed that message to our CRF coordinator Donny, and he is going to get a group coming later in the summer to paint the building. It was fun to be able to better converse with all these new friends, and I hope it can even get better. I did try one of my other tricks where I got 5 of the older grade school girls to stand while I, as an artist, drew their picture. What is fun, and worked best at this school, was that I had a crowd of about 10 kids behind me watching me draw. So as I "act" like I am drawing these girls, they stand perfectly still, as I zoom in on their eyes, their nose, their smile...while on the paper, I am just drawing silly stick figures, and the kids behind me are cracking up. This was even more fun because the principal came over excited that I was an artist doing pictures of her students, but when I turned the paper around for those girls, the principals face was about the same as the girls...yeah, not so funny for them, but the ones watching had a blast with it. :)
Then it was time to leave again. Rafael came up to show me that he had learned the floating staff trick. I told him good job, but it was "un secreto". He smiled and gave me a big hug. I found out later, that he and Davis also had some fun times hanging out and trying to communicate. I got a picture of them together as well. Back at the day care, I called Carlos over to help me translate some of the parts of Bryan's letter that I received...
Dear Friend, Thank you for coming to the school. The trick that you showed me was the best because if made my mouth drop wide open. So Cool (Tan vien) was the trick with the staff, where you showed it floating with no hands. So Cool (Tan vien) when we read the bible in Psalms, Matthew, and Chronicles. I hope you return to play with use and the rings again. I love you much. When you had to have other friends, I missed speaking with you. I send you much kisses and much hugs. From Bryan Jose. To My Best Friend El Gringo
That evening we all settled down, and the boys went out for some ice cream. Everyone was planning to go to church for Bible study at 7 that night, then Rusty (from the Texas group) walked in and said "Hey, they start at 5 here". Ahhhh, we are horrible on this trip. Ugh, I can't believe we were late again, arriving at about 5:30. Maximo was preaching, and I don't know what he was preaching, but we were there, and got to visit with the brothers and sisters there that evening. I got to meet Eduardo's older brother Edy (yeah, they are big on Eds in his family). I also got to visit with an old friend Israel, that we meet in 2019. He is a really good preacher, very good with connecting to folks. We spoke about his son that had recently married and now lived 1 hour by car away. Eduardo jokingly told Israel that by next year when we return, Israel had to be speaking all in English, which became our quick joke the following night when we met again. Israel shared with me one of his favorite verses, and had me turn to it and read it...Joshua 1:8 "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."
Back at the day care, we were waiting around for supper, and Carlos asked me and Davis if we wanted to go see his house. Carlos has that perfect stereotypical english with a mexican accent in the movies. And when he it talking, you can't help but smile. And we had a great time. He showed Davis all his Snap-On tools. "I get everything from the US". Then he showed us in his home, which was super nice one room apartment size, but very well maintained. He then showed us the backyard, with the swimming pool, then the treehouse (Yes, it was crazy!), and even cranked up the music on his porch for us ...boom boom Mr. Boombastic... boom boom. He had like an Oasis here in campamento. We found out that he was THE MECHANIC in campamento. Due to his many years working on all types of vehicles in the US, he was the one everyone wanted to fix their car. His father was also the one that taught all of the other mechanics in the area, and apparently he was very wealthy for this area. But it was weird that he showed us all this stuff, but was so humble in how he shared it. He really loved the US, but in his conversations, you could tell he just wished his family could be there with him. After dinner, I think he took Brandon, Scott Vinsant, and Sam back over to his house. What a fun day!
And that night we had the best meal of the whole trip. It was tacos, but the best was the Pupusas. Carlos showed me how to fix the pupusas (like a cheese bread) with slaw and a tomatoe sauce on top, and it was simply amazing.
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