I Got Goosed

new year’s eve started with a good workout of rooftop painting. actually so will new year’s day till the end of this week. so from now on i’m going to refrain from blogging about rooftop painting unless something different happens.

instead of painting this afternoon like we did on friday, we organized the gifts that were brought for the kids. it wasn’t so much “we” since its was Barry who brought the gifts… and a lot of gifts did he bring. there were some members of his church that put together a small bounty of treasure for us to unbox and sort.

there were a lot of different kinds of things which went into three different piles: girls, boys, and non-gender specific.

after sorting through the gifts, we took a break. i used about 30 minutes to take a short nap before the next big event… playing with the kids.

all kids regardless of ethnicity and culture seems to have limitless energy. so we attempted to burn some of it by having the girls and boys jump rope (one of the gifts) and play duck duck goose respectively. this time i joined in the game and almost busted my gut running around after being “goosed”. them kids are FAST! we then had them switch so that the boys could have a turn with the ropes.

another session of “on the bank, in the pond” was played. this time i think they got better because it was much more difficult to trip them up but eventually they started to fall for my trickery. the boys lasted about 75% of the way with about a third of the girls left. so i intensified my calls till only two very bright girls were left. they held out strong and at last there wasn’t a sole winner because they both were tripped at the last call.

the last game we played was “Jacob and Rachel”. its like “Marco Polo” except its two player and “Jacob” is blindfolded calling for Rachel who does her best not to get caught. after several players, they came and blindfolded me. i didn’t do very good for i had the constant sensation that i would run into the wall if i lunged for Rachel or hurt the kids in the process.

we had some time to kill between playing with the kids and dinner so some of us sang some songs while i played my fluke ukelele. it was nice to sing fun interactive songs like “We Are Soldiers”, “Oh How I Love Jesus”, and classics like “Everybody Ought to Know”.

being that it was new year’s eve, there was a special evening program than the usual worship which included a special time where people got the chance to reflect in testimony how awesome God has been this past year. at the end we were given some special snacks and then some fireworks were launched just outside the hall. it didn’t seem all that spectacular compared to what we experience in the states, but it was a real treat for the kids who enjoyed the sight.

its 10:15p and time for me to get to bed. i think i’m beginning to like this sleeping-early business.