Ok, so, its not too often in my life that I get to be a translator for a team, its generally something other people do, but the other week I was able to translate for a team from the deep south, or in other words, North Carolina. Here's a review of my week...
Sunday At 1:30 ish the team touched down at the airport, ready to begin a new week. I actually semi-met them at around 5:00 when they came out for supper. Then came church... I didn't know this until after the service, but I ended up translating for the pastor of the church, which I have never done before! I generally am a very bad translator, so its a wonder he actually understood anything I said... One thing I immediately noted was how extremely tall these Americans were, at least the guys, were almost all over 6ft!
Monday Monday I headed in to the guest-house to help the lady members of the team prepare for a kids program out at the church we would be working at. Beads were rolling every where and somehow I got assigned to the older kids of the church, 9 and up. Then at about 12:00 (after a quick trip up to the market to have a look at fruit and hand sanitizer) we got into the big bus and went to the church, the same one I went to earlier in
April.
The first story walls had been put up to almost completion, so the construction site was completely different to what it had been. But, though time had passed, some things stayed the same, like the gigantic portions of food at lunch...
After lunch, we went on a little walk around the neighbourhood and then came the kids club! We played games, then the guys went back to work (which they had been doing all morning) and the gals did the the kids club. Puppets, then we divided up into our groups. I took my viejitos (little oldies) to our place on the court and divided up the books, name tags and pencils. Good stuff. At 5:00 we headed back to the guest-house, supper, then bed.
Tuesday The team was set to go out to various ministries so I got to sleep in a bit, but that went wrong for the group going out to one nearer to my house, so I had to be ready twice as quick, but that was ok. There were blocks on the road you see, and their group car was scraped up by a passing garbage truck, and couldn't get out to the ministry, so, we walked up to the toll booth and got a bus back into town from there. It made one lady's birthday rather exciting... Then we headed out to the church for lunch. The pastors sons (from the team) both love the kind of music I do, so we sang various songs on the way out to the work site which was really fun :) Again we had soup, but the church has been extra generous with these guys, giving them a Segundo (big plate of food immediately after big plate of soup) nearly every day of the week... Kids club we had about 40 kids, which was great, again it was fairly organized, but my group was wild... I had to literally yell at them to get them to hush. Got back to the guest house and had supper, came back home, got showered and headed back into the church for a night service, the sermon was preached by the preacher from the team, in English. My Math teacher translated it into spanish and the Pastor of the Bolivian church translated that into Quechua. The poor team was a bit bewildered by all the Quechua songs. Got home late and into bed.
Wednesday Other wise known as a full rich day. Got up early and headed in to the guest house. Then onto the bus to the church. More songs, but this time country songs... bleh. Avoided construction and focussed more on the kids program and getting things organized. Had lunch, and actually finished my soup! Oh, there are a couple of kids in my group who play the drums (for a parade) and it was kinda annoying. (Of course I did have all the LOUD kids in my group) They stood outside the church for about 10 minutes with loud banging and such, it hurt my head... The kids program was a lot better, as for one I moved my group to the shade, and I had someone helping me out though this time, and we were only doing bookwork. They had books with all the lessons in them, which was really good. The spanish was flowing easier too. The pastors dad (from the team) had a nap in the church, snoring quite loudly... But at 5:00 as usual we headed back to the guest house. I was able to take the team up to a restaurant to eat, which was fun. We had a lot of fun discussing various types of music. Home again home again zigity zig.
Thursday Got to sleep in, but got sick... threw up a couple of times and had a bad headache, but was good to go to get to the church. The team had lunch at the school instead of the church that day anyway. But the kids program was fine, and this time I had a guy from MY church helping out, which was great, because the kids respected him (he being Bolivian and not some blonde haired blue eyed gringa trying to tell them what to do). The guys also helped out a little more on Thursday, which was better too. They look all beat up, partly from things like contruction, but also from playing soccer (one got a black eye from the ball) a couple got scraped up from b-ball with our guys that night, and yeah. So, at 5:00 we got back to the guest house and I went home before supper, because I hadn't signed up for supper. But I slept really well, which helped my poor head.
Friday Ok, another full rich day. Again, I spent my time organizing people for skits and such instead of construction. :) lunch I finished my soup, and the guys couldn't hahahaha... :) One guy was sleeping in the church, and I was trying to get some of the little kids to tickle him and/or jump on him etc. etc., they wouldn't, but eventually they just sat down at his feet, waking him up. They spent the next half hour until lunch chasing each other round the church, which was really
funny to watch... the kids program we had a lot of help from the guys and the kids really liked their prizes for coming each day of the week. The church gave all the girls, including me, a lovely handmade bag as a thank-you :) We went to a nice steak place for supper, which was really great. I had a steak that I thought I had ordered well cooked, but it was still mooing! I got along great with the team, there was an mk from Africa, and we had a blast! Mks stick together :) We got so hyper, it was just fun. Poked fun at some of the guys for getting freaked out by a blue kangaroo... Got home past midnight, fun eh?
Saturday
Last day with
