Weekend Fun

What a wonderful weekend it was. Saturday morning, as always, began with a few moments to sweep, clean and tidy up our living area. The morning was quiet and relaxing and during that time, Molly gathered us together to invite us to join her, Joyce (see note) and 13 of the oldest kids from the toddler house on a hike to a well known waterfall. Obviously, we all jumped at the opportunity. So we made our way down to the mainhouse at about noon for lunch and about an hour or so later, gathered together in the driveway to head out. The kids all sat in a line waiting, very excitedly, as it was the first time to the waterfall for most of them; each with their own pair of florescent sunglasses. It was quite adorable.

The hike started along on mostly level rock roads, but soon we came upon a rather steep and skinny path that would lead us down to the dried up river bed, and ultimately across and up to the waterfall. As the paths were often littered with loose, jagged rocks and some of the kids were only 6 or 7, all of the adults had to space out along the trail and pass each child off one by one to avoid a domino effect of tumbling children. The paths eventually leveled out into a huge open valley of smoothed out large pale beige stones, instead of the flowing river it used to be and I believe still is at certain times of the year. Spread out across the riverbed were patches of colorful clothing and linens that had been washed in the small stream of water that still comes down from the mountain and laid out to dry in the scorching sun. As we neared the opening to what would have been one of the rivers largest feeders, the small stream of water started to become more established and it became very apparent that this was a very common area for the people in the community to come to wash and collect water for their homes. Even this was a sobering realization as the hike is not an easy one and it is done often to carry back water using various containers and large 5 gallon buckets that are then carried back atop the carriers head.

The rocky climb up the mountain to the waterfall was made all the more interesting by the congestion of people we encountered; small pods of naked women and children that had gathered along the edge of the stream to wash and cool off. The children would often stop their splashing around to watch us, but the women didn't pay us much heed unless we took the opportunity to greet them. But, because many of them were older, quite large and mostly nude, we were doing our best to look the other way, thus eliminating any chance of a conversation. Again, clothes and linens had been laid out to dry and we chose our route based mostly on where the path was most clear.

After about an hour we did reach the waterfall, which was rather unimpressive as far as waterfalls go, but it was pretty enough and a pool nearby gave the kids an ideal place to splash around. The kids were rowdy, but generally well-behaved (except when Joyce had to tell the girls a few times not to stare at the half naked young men who chose to bathe at the base of the waterfall) and we set off back down the mountain cooled and satisfied. The hike down was much quicker and easier but still involved spacing out and helping the kids down from large boulders and across wider areas of the stream. I wasn't much help there because as I was one of the few in proper footwear and didn't want to get my shoes wet, there were a couple situations where I needed more assistance then the kids did. The first time happened to be right in the middle of a small gathering of locals. I was standing there looking obviously perplexed, trying to decipher the best place to cross when a young boy came to my rescue. Seeing my dilemma, he went ahead and placed a couple small boulders across the stream and proceeded to grab my arm and lead me across. I reached the other side touched and amused and he relinquished my hand clearly happy and proud of what he'd done. In fact, his whole family seemed quite amused at the situation and with a smile and a "mesi" to the little boy, I carried on. The second time I came to a difficult crossing, Timothy, Molly's brother, happened to be standing nearby to help the kids across. There was an available rock in the middle to jump to but as it was a bit below where I was standing and I was worried about slipping, I requested his hand. This crossing was much less graceful and left us both laughing once both my feet were planted firmly on the other side. The rest of the way back was more of a meander as the kids were growing tired and thirsty and afforded some incredible views of the valley once we'd made our way back up the mountain. We arrived back at the mainhouse about 3 hours after we'd first left and just in time for dinner.

In the evening, back at the toddler house, we watched old episodes of Friends and generally lazed about until bed; not a bad way to end an amazing day.

Sunday morning was much the same before heading back to Joel and Yvonne's for church. We sang a few songs and Joel spoke about suffering. There were only about 17 of us this time but it was no less memorable. After lunch I spent some time with one of the volunteers named Laura, who I adore and have become quite close to. She's my go-to here, my best buddy, and we rarely stop laughing when we're together. She had been sick for about a week with a common parasite called Giardia and had been moved to the mainhouse on Saturday so Susan, the nurse, could put her on an IV to remedy her dehydration and keep an eye on her. At that time she had already spent a good deal of time alone in the room she was staying in and was quite miserable so I was happy to keep her company for the short time that I had before heading back to the toddler house. She has since moved back with us and is recovering and I'm very happy about that.

I spent a good few hours that afternoon on the balcony listening to Brooke Fraser from the two crappy little external speakers I bought for my iPod, writing and reading.

I knew I would have to get used to a slower pace of life here but I feel like I'm adjusting better then I thought I would. Where as at home, I'm often content only by doing two things at once, here, I can spend an hour on the balcony alternately writing and spending time just staring out over the houses at the mountains and watching the activity below. I'm learning to relax, to be quiet and listen...something I've always had trouble with. We'll just have to see what happens when I get home...

(note: Molly and Joyce run the toddler house and live with us there. They are about my age and have been working at GLA for 5 and 7 years. They are wonderful, a lot of fun and I love them)