the king of flies

i believe that's a book about kids that are stranded on an island and they form their own government and hierarchy. i thought of it when i was watching the kids one evening from the second floor of the G.O. building. it's all kids. the parents aren't anywhere to be seen. two of the younger girls got into a fight and there was a stand off. some of the kids their age were watching and putting in their two cents. a few older boys came and were just observing definitely just watching the show. then an older teenager or maybe even a young guy in his early twenties walked through and broke it up a bit. telling this person that and that person this. whoever was bigger made the rules. that was easy to see.

day two started at around 530 or 6. by that time it was bright as day. i stayed in bed slightly longer thinking to myself how amazing it was that it was so bright. then breakfast which was incredible. fried eggs i believe. mm mmm. the morning went easy and around 9 i think we went to set up VBS in the church, down on the first floor. there were lots and lots of kids. many just watched from the fence and we kept inviting them in. Veni timmon (teh MOAN). come children. and we filled the church. after singing we split the kids into 3 age groups, which was far from perfect. moving to the areas was wild chaos. and then a translator at each group told a bible story. then we did a craft which on this day (thursday) was a ziplock baggie filled partly with blue rocks and we put paper stars and fish in them. then we stapled a fish bowl shape around the ziplock baggie. the kids didn't do anything really besides sit there and let us give them stuff. i went around our circle stapling and they didn't know how to hold the bags or put the paper bowl around it so i was bending down and holding this and trying to communicate where i wanted their hands, but not only could i not speak the language, these were young kids and didn't really get it anyway. it was so hot i was dripping all over. finally it was time to go outside and play. thank you Jesus.

we set up a spot inside the fence where there was a place used as a soccer goal and a spot to kick from. we brought out one ball. i realized quickly that in this culture where it was whoever could slap or push their way through not all of the kids were going to get a chance so i started pushing and pulling kids away from the ball and into a line. easier said than done because even when the kids understand what you are trying to do, they are still trying to get what they want. they look at you and beg not for what is right but that you let them break the rules.

so i stood at the front of the line, holding everyone back, because even in the line they are pushing forward so no one can cut them which pushes the line constantly. when one kid, i think they were all boys, would kick once, i kind of grab the head of the next boy and pull him in front of me. quickly again, i realized that many boys were cutting. quite blantantly. i tried to get help from someone to watch the line but pretty soon i switched places so he could be at the front of the line and i would watch for cutters. they boys were so bad. they would argue. they knew what i meant, what i was doing and they would still try. just so they could kick a ball. they are so starved for fun. for playing. and one of the sad parts is that the other kids being cut really seemed to be used to it. in america i'm sure i would have heard yelling about cutting and "teacher, teacher" but here there might be a short yell and then acceptance. like it was the way things were.

all of the other kids, well, most of them anyway, were occupied by a huge, and i mean huge, beach ball that they would hit in the air and chase. there isn't a field inside of the fence, just a medium sized area and they took that ball all over it. kids from the soccer ball line would run over and hit the ball and then try and get back in line, which i put an end to quickly. but it was so hard to regulate cutting since everyone was trying to do it. if i spent a second moving one boy to the end of the line, the boy who just kicked would move into place right behind the boy who was kicking next. like trying to stop a sinking boat by plugging one hole at a time.

lunch and siesta, which if i haven't explained that before is the wonderful invention where no on does anything really between 12 and 2, then preparing to do the first soccer camp. next to the fenced in area is a field that doesn't really have grass and is kinda in the shape of a triangle. two roads that go on either side of the church area cross on the other side of the field. there is a wall about 4 to 5 feet high along most of one of the roads. between the church and the field though someone is building a house, even though the church owns the land, the guy just took it. i'm not sure who it is or how he is powerful but he doesn't own the land and i guess there has been a lawsuit for the last three years. i bring this up because we take our stuff out into the field to do the soccer camp and we learn from the workers that we can't do the camp on our field. to avoid trouble we decide to move back inside the fence around the church. there are so many kids so we try to pick an age group and then we just pick thirty from that group. there are a lot of kids that don't get to come to the camp today. those who don't stand against the fence and watch from the outside. we have 3 stations and i am in charge of the dribbling station. there was shooting and passing also. i set up cones for the kids to slalom through. the thirty kids are split into three "families" with a parent and a translator. i start my drill by explaining through the translator what the kids are going to do and then helping them. after all three teams go we break down the drill areas push the kids to the side and set up a playing field in the small area. teams of 5 are picked from the kids and they play until the first goal. then new teams. some of these kids are pretty good.

we then have supper and then i find out that some older guys want to play us in soccer. we head out to a school that might be like a 3 min. walk from the church so we can use it's field. but there is already a group of haitians there on the field, not playing, and they give us some trouble. they said they want to play against the americans but we weren't going to do that. so we walked back and used the field next to the church. which i guess it was okay because it was a soccer game and we weren't doing any camp there, so no one had a problem with it.

we split up americans and haitians and it was a great time. so much fun. getting dirty, playing soccer. the field was lined with haitians. lined, maybe even two rows all the way around. and they cheered and yelled. espeically for goals. it was an amazing time. then we went back in for supper.

we had more time for debriefing then we just hung out. another great day in haiti.