Camp Friendship-Day Three

our hair fixing station...if you needed to blowdry or straighten your hair, this is where you had to do it

breakfast...see description below...just couldn't do this one

tapping out a daily email to Danny on my blackberry...turns out the emails served as a great record of the trip

the ladies that cleaned swept with these homemade brooms and mopped the floors on their hands and knees.

one of several examples of the beautiful dorm signs the girls made

Deanna teaching the boys what to do on their dorm signs

Eugene, one of our interpreters helping the boys to stay focused

these boys loved the "dum dum" suckers one of their group leaders gave them. They especially liked the blue ones because it turned their tongues blue.

Eugene and Liza entertaining themselves with items from the craft cabinet

we were given two bottles of water a day and we were so hot and sweaty that I drank at least 1 and 1/2 a day.

grape ice cream...yummy

Anton and his wife Ira(not sure if I spelled this right)

the fabulous cookies with raspberry filling

Nastia, also a frequent visitor to our afternoon crafts to make bracelets.

Visiting Yosef and his kittens. Note the new knee pads!

Deanna and I were given these wreaths after the girls performed their festival dance. Perhaps they didn't know we were already married...

Shane and Marilyn with one of the ever present children glued to Shane.

This morning it was showers early as usual. Deanna and I are so used to the routine that we already have our crafts organized and ready to go the night before. This makes the morning much less stressful. We met at the flagpole again this morning. This was the first morning that I had to pull out the poptarts. I just couldn't eat a breakfast that was porridge with a piece of some part of a chicken and chicken broth poured over all of it. Deanna loved it. She said she was happy to have meat. Crafts this morning was a group project for each dorm. They made a "dorm sign" that was supposed to have something written on it about what Jesus means to them and also the names of everyone in the dorm. This project was hysterical. We have three groups that rotate in and each one was the same. The girls (who Deanna worked with) were organized and made pretty paper flowers for their signs. The boys (who I worked with) argued about who would write their name first, which way they would turn it, what they wanted to put on it, etc. By the time they finished arguing and writing, they only had time for a few stickers. It was so funny. The different dorms are filming movies for "Oscar Night" next week. We will miss it, but Deanna helped them make elf hats and a wicked witch hat for Snow White. We have a new helper starting today named Eugene. He was Danny's interpreter last year and he is really just a big kid himself. The kids like him and he appears to like working with the crafts. He helped make the poison apple. We also have an interpreter named Yulia that came to help us starting yesterday. She is very sweet and we need all the help we can get. She sits with me at night and interprets so that Tonya can interpret for Deanna. We have had a lot of rain and lots of thunder today, but the power did not go out. Lunch today was noodles and a meat pie that Deanna said tasted like Boudin. It was too much like meatloaf to me so I didn't eat it. We also had soup with potatoes and little bits of chicken in it. It was good. Afternoon crafts was well populated and they LOVE making bracelets with beads and thread. After crafts, we had an afternoon snack which was a fabulous big fat cookie with raspberry filling. It was delicious! Deanna and I went to the village this afternoon with Kayla and Maria (two summer workers). We also took along Steve, who is the North Monroe youth director, and two interpreters. We went to visit Yosef, a man in the village that Kayla and Maria have been ministering to. He is unable to walk and moves around on his knees. They ordered him knee pads to make it easier for him. He really likes his knee pads. He is also hard of hearing so we had to speak loud. He had two of the cutest kittens! Steve prayed for him before we left. We had hoped to visit a lady that has terrible sores on her legs, but she was not at home. We made it back to camp for supper which was liver patties, buckwheat, and a fried egg! This was the worst meal yet. Bread and butter for me. Actually I ate three pieces of bread and butter and THEN they brought out these fabulous poppyseed rolls. I only ate one, but they were delicious! Worship was interesting tonight. The activities got a little too focused on two Ukrainian traditions called The Festival of Fire and Light and The Festival of Love. Basically, the Festival of Love has to do with how and when young ladies will find their mate. They wear these beautiful wreaths on their heads made of flowers and then float them down the river. If it finds land, they will find a mate soon. If it continues down the river, then it will be awhile. There was just a lot of attention to the festival and the tradition. After the activities, one of the dorm parents spoke about how our lives are to be led by the Lord and not tradition. He brought the focus back spiritually and we closed with a praise song. So tired, but so fulfilled with the job we are doing here. Goodnight!