VBS Day 3 - Queen Esther (Wednesday, July 16)

This warm sunny morning, 2PC piled in our bus with our Domincan translators and friends to head to VBS with a total of 32 passengers. In the schoolyard we were greeted with waves, smiles, and “Buenos Dias!” from kids and their families. The music team kicked it off with “Cambiare mi Tresteza” which translates to “Trading All my Sorrows” and “Si en Verdad Eres Salvo” which is sung to the tune of “Happy and You know It.” This session of praise was wrapped up with a enthusiastic "repeat after me" prayer ending with "AAAAAAHHHMENN." We then split the children into groups by age and began crafts and recreation. Our first group for the crafts were the 9-12 year olds. Todays craft involved making and decorating crowns. Each kid got the chance to be a king or queen for the day. Once we handed out the crowns they then got to decorate them with jewels, pom-poms, and rick rack. While the 9-12 year old were making their crowns the 7-8 year olds were busy playing in recreation. They played many games which included soccer and a Dominican form of "baseball." The way they usually play does not involve the usual bat and ball but instead their arm and a soccer ball. After the rotation was finished we all met up for the daily puppet show and end-of-the-day song. We also sang Happy Birthday to a girl after the puppet show. As the kids were leaving for the day we passed out ring pops which went along with the royalty theme. They quickly became a big hit! While some of us were at VBS, the construction team also had a successful day. Today was the first day that we had the chance to go to the school and help construct the third floor. The goal of SRI is to complete the school and have it hold children for grades K-7 until they eventually move on to the high school across the road. The day consisted of mixing concrete, lifting the buckets of concrete, and filling holes in the cinder block walls. After a delicious lunch, we continued the day and started sawing wood and nailing pieces together to eventually create an important part of the soon-to-be school. This experience is one that not everyone will be able to say they had. When the school is finally finished, those of us who had this chance will have the excitement of being able to say, "Ï worked on this school and now children are able to enjoy a day of school with friends." The long day wrapped up with a trip to the site where the new clinic will be built and then a tour of the already existing clinic. We then headed to a delicious dinner and straight to an amazing ice cream store (all in the back of a pick-up truck). Although we are all exhausted, we managed to have another fun filled day full of great experiences. Blogged by: Sidney Murray, Ali Sharpe, and Madison Grehawick