Today is Saturday, May 29 2010.. Wow this week is flying by!! This morning we woke up for 5am to get ready for our field trip to the beach!! We began getting all the kids together by 6:00. They were very excited to go because many of them are never able to leave the orphanage property at all, nevermind go to the beach. There was a list of about 100 kids that were selected to go on the trip and the rest of them had to stay behind. For the most part the older kids were the ones who could come. Kim checked the list as each child came on the bus.. There were 5 people to a seat and it was so unbelievably hot on the bus.. It seemed like forever sitting there while we loaded everybody and did multiple headcounts. Just as we were about to leave, another bus pulled up for us to take. I was very happy that we didn't have to squeeze more than one hundred people on twenty school bus seats, but it took forever to get half of the kids off, reload, and get situated again. Finalllyy around 730 we were ready to hit the road! As soon as we took off we all cringed at the sound of our breaks screeching very loudly... I knew this was going to be an adventure.. Dolly (one of the orphans I have been with all week) sat next to me and slept on my lap the entire ride.. The bus flew down the narrow, dirt, bumpy roads going what seemed to be 100mph.. That may be exaggerating a bit, but we were at least going 65. We sped by other huge trucks seeming as if we would get run off the road, drove through a river, and into the countryside where we finally reached the beach. We arrived around 9:30 am. The beach was actually pretty nice. We all took shifts to go into the water with the kids. The water was very warm and there were many spots where you could see right through the blue water to the sand. Other parts weren't so clear and the bottom was very rocky. I had a lot of fun in the water with the kids. We played with beach balls and other toys and they pretty much just held onto me the whole time as I swam around. The water was definitely refreshing. After everyone was done playing in the ocean, we all came out to eat lunch and play in the sand for a bit. I danced with dolly for a while and the kids taught me some new moves haha. Then we realized it was time to go as the beach became a hang out spot for many older kids... We found a couple of our kids from the orphanage traded food and water we brought for beer from these people that came on the beach.. It was definitely time to go. We loaded everybody on the bus around 1 or 1:30.. Now it is currently 2:30 and we are dead stopped in traffic on the school bus... I can't even explain how hot it is, but I know that the heat index for today here was 110 degrees. Sitting three to a seat on this bus does not help the situation. We just pulled over because one girl had an accident and she still had to go to the bathroom. So she got off the bus to go on the pile of rubble outside of the bus.. Other kids followed.. Two kids threw up.. Oh man.. It was a fun day but I can't wait until we get back to the orphanage.. I feel that it is going to be a while...
It is now 10pm and I'm exhausted... When we finally got back from the beach around 330 or 4 I showered and hung out with the kids for a bit. Then our group rode on the back of the truck to get 'real food' at a hotel close by (seeing that we ate peanut butter and granola bars pretty much the whole week everyone was really looking forward to it). We had such a great time just relaxing and socializing for a while. I love the fact that I did not really know anybody very well before going on this trip and now I will be leaving with a great new group of friends. Everybody is so nice and so much fun to be around. When we returned we were of course welcomed by all the kids running up to the truck and very excited to see us.. I am going to miss this so much when I go home. We stayed downstairs to play a bit with the kids outside... this made my night. I am now sooo ready for bed. I can't believe tomorrow is our last full day here already..
Bonn nwi, Na demen (Goodnight, see you tomorrow)
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