Beach Camp continued...

Thursday and Friday we went to the beach. Another organization let us use a house they have for our meals and other activities. On Thursday we started out with a relay race on the beach and then the kids had free time until lunch. During free time the kids got to try surfing or sea kayaking. Or they could play in the water or in the sand. I spent awhile on Thursday helping one of the kids look for hermit crabs. We found a lot. It made me a little worried about my feet. We had spaghetti for lunch and we ate it on the beach. The kids were not given forks to make it more fun. At first we were under the impression that we (the staff and amigos) were not supposed to eat with forks either, so we started smuggling them to where we were eating. We then found out it was fine for us to use them, so we didn't have to be discrete anymore. After lunch we played another game. It involved hitting targets with water balloons using a big sling shot. The kids had a lot of fun...and somehow managed to not get hurt. Then there was pudding eating. With no hands. I chose to watch and was glad when I saw the chocolate pudding that Greg had smeared in Amanda's ear. It was fun to watch though. :) That was followed by more free time in the water until we left to eat dinner at the Ranch.

Then there was Friday. I'll honestly admit that I didn't do much with the kids on Friday. But I had a whole lot of fun. There were a lot of adults around so I didn't feel like I was abandoning children. It was also much cooler and a little rainy (first and only rain I have seen since coming here) due to a hurricane somewhere to the south, which caused less kids to be in the water. I was only in the water because I borrowed a wet suit (wow, those things are awesome!) from one of the amigos. I decided to be adventurous Friday and it was great. I tried surfing (made it up on one foot and a knee) and sea kayaking (super fun, but I capsized on the way back into shore). A couple staff and a few amigos stayed in the water while the kids went to eat lunch, which is when I got my first surfing lessons. Once the kids came back, I went up and ate lunch. Upon returning I found that the kids weren't kayaking, so I asked if I could try. I have never kayaked and have only canoed on rivers, so this was a different experience. I want to try it again sometime. After that I played in the water some and then surfed a little more. I got out of the water once Eunice came and asked me to help organize the girls to take showers. The orphanage staff sent two volunteers with the group to act as their staff (each orphanage has to send staff with their kids). The volunteers did a great job and all would have been fine except that they had to leave Thursday at lunch to go home to Washington state. So, at that point they no longer had any staff. One of the niños was 19 and very helpful with the boys, but that left us in charge of the girls. That made things interesting. Fortunately, they were well-behaved and we didn't really have any problems.

Friday night we had a luau of sorts. We ate various kinds of meat and rice with pineapple in it. I did some "hula" dancing with a couple of the amigas and staff. That was funny. It was very impromptu. For dessert the amigos served the kids dirt. Well, dirt that was actually crunched up oreos, pudding and gummy worms. It was served out in flower pots and the kids dug through it with their hands. It's an understatement to say that they had fun. :)

Saturday was the day for the kids to go home. They were supposed to stay until lunch, but their staff that showed up the night before had other plans and wanted to get them back. It was the saddest farewell of the summer. I was holding together pretty well until I saw that one of the boys had tears rolling down his cheeks. It was impossible not to cry after seeing that. On the bright side it was super cool to see what an impact we (staff and amigos) had on the kids in such a short amount of time. Despite language barriers and chaos, you could tell that the kids (especially the older ones) had really had a wonderful week. It was sad to say good bye to them, and sad to realize that this was the end of the summer camps. After the kids left, the staff and amigos prayed together. We prayed for the kids, we thanked God for the week we had, and prayed for the Ranch in general. It was wonderful and encouraging. I tend to be a little on the uncomfortable side when praying out loud with other people, but it was so great to look back on the week and praise God for what He did and to pray for the precious children that had just left us to return to their normal lives. It was uplifting to think that God has a plan for each of those kids and that He is watching over them even when we can't be there with them. After praying, we did some cleaning and ate lunch then headed into Ensenada. From there I will pick up tomorrow with the week after the camps...

But, before I end for today....thought you might be amused to see a picture of my attempt at surfing. If you've never tried it, you should....it's fun. :)