After Recreation

I'm home--yippee!! I can reconnect with the outside world again. So you want to know about Recreation? All right, I guess I can spare some time.

The Recreation Center was at an abandoned school (not dilapidated and battered--we cleaned it), and we had no AC. Instead, we had gigundo fans that were like, 30 in. in diameter. I used that to dry my hair after my short shower =} The girl's room was really large--they were all classrooms. We had clotheslines to hang up swimsuits and towels. Gosh, I guess I'm really NOT used to sleeping on an air mattress!! It was so warm at night that I just slept with no covers, and freezing in the morning.

The worship services were so wickedawesomecool; we jumped up and down and sang along to "Jumping in the House of God," which was to the beat of Peanut Butter Jelly Time with the dancing banana in the video. (which by the way, my counselor [who dyed his hair purple and shaved it off so now he has a purple scalp] dressed up in a banana suit and danced around in it at the last worship service during that song!!) X3 On Monday night, we went out to go to Fun Depot, an arcade/go-cart/laser tag center. Let me tell you--I love speeding and crashing!! (Not in real life, that stuff is fatal and illegal)

Our family that we worked for consisted of 3 girls (ages 7,4, and 1) and a husband and wife. The children were sent to the DSS, the Department of Social Services, because of their living condition and other things. They had open sewage, and a lopsided deck. Our youth group dug 270 freaking feet of 4 ditches, each 1 foot wide and 18 inches deep. If I see another mattock, shovel, or sledge hammer, I'm gonna scream!! On Friday we finally installed the pipes. (sweat, sweat) that was really strenuous. . . .we also put a cool seal on their trailer roof since it was all the way out in the sun, and repaired the deck. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but the only power tool (an electric saw) was used by an adult DX

Wednesday was when we all took a day off and went white water rafting. We did class 1-4 white waters, not above. At one of the stops, we climbed up some big rocks and jumped into the water below (no more than about 10 ft., I guess). There were a whole bunch of yellow monarch butterflies; they were beautiful. I wonder what attracted them there. . . When our raft was going down a 4 ft. drop, my friend somehow managed to stick both arms and legs up in the air and almost fall off the edge! Meanwhile I had put my paddle against her back to push her back onto the raft. I'm (finger quotes) such a life saver (finger quotes)!! I had a really good experience on that, plus my biceps got a workout (; (although the guide told us to use our body when we paddled. . .oh well!) Then the youth group went to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner. Man, their pizza is ah-mazing!

We also went by Walmart on Thursday evening. Youth leader had to pick up a perscription for someone, so some people tagged along. One of the guys got a brilliant idea to buy us all cheap water guns, and when we got back to the Recreation Center, we ran around and squirted each other ^_^ It was a blast!! By the way, if you haven't noticed, I've been guiding you through my trip in chronological order. I hate jumping around. Friday was the last day to work, so we all pushed ourselves until we got it done. By then, we only had 20 min. to get back before dinner started, so we had to take showers afterwards (ew) DX Just so you know, we woke up at 6:00 every morning, and began working at 8:00 after breakfast and worship. So if you do the math, from 8:00 to 4:00 pm, that's 7 hrs of work, excluding the one lunch hour in between.

I had a really great experience, and this isn't corny: our youth group really did learn to work together and bond and and show Christ's ways to the family we helped. Recreation was dirty and gross, sure, but with it came fun and hard work. That's all for now, folks, so peace out!

*yawn*,

<><><>Kristen