So, today is Halloween. Not that we really celebrate that here in Uganda, but we do what we can!
Yesterday at Heritage, we had our Rain Festival. All week long, we had been preparing for it, doing various activities throughout the week. Monday was Decorate Your Door Day, Tuesday - Create Your Class Movie, Wednesday we presented the movies, Thursday - Draw Your Costume or something, and Friday was the actual Rain Festival.
Oh yeah, did I mention my 6th graders won the Video Contest? They were so great, and got SO into the movie!. I'll try to post the video as soon as I have a chance, but it's 700 MB, so it'll take a while with my Internet! But worth the wait, I promise you!
What's up with the name? The Rain Festival is basically like a lot of the Harvest Festivals back in the U.S., where churches just want to have something fun to do that isn't based on ghouls and goblins and witchcraft. Hence, the name.
It was a busy school day, frenzied set-up, and a crazy, fun evening - and it was all worth it. The kids had a great time, I had a blast, and even though I am EXHAUSTED simply thinking about everything that we did to get ready, it was definitely a fun memory to add to the books! One particular reason it was busy for me was that I had to try and run my 6th grade booth, take care of the sound/music that we had for the evening on my laptop, take pictures here and there for the yearbook, and oh yeah - GET THROWN IN JAIL and BE PUT IN THE DUNK TANK.
Now, when I say "jail," I mean the soccer goal post that had the net draped on both sides :) And when I say "dunk tank," I mean a shower nozzle that the kids get to turn on for 10 sec. intervals if they pay 1,000 shillings. Needless to say, I was thrown in jail within the first 5 minutes of the Rain Festival beginning and I had 10 kids pay to 'dunk' me... but only 9 of them actually got it (I didn't realize the last kid was waiting, so I left - oops!) ... it was awesome.
We also had a little get-together tonight, just a little hang-out Halloween party to carve pumpkins, eat desserts, play Monster MadLibs, and eat roasted pumpkin seeds. Yum!
Jill (the cat) and me (Little Red Riding Hood)
All the festivities this week made me miss SLO a lot. Last year was just an amazing time of fellowship, friendship, and community in general. A few of us dressed up as pirates and invaded Grace's Harvest Festival... and then got thanked for 'helping' in the bulletin the next week. We tried to set the record straight and say that we, in fact, played the games alongside the kids, but our picture still stayed in the bulletin for many weeks to come. We were also supposed to have a softball game (since last year, Halloween was on a Friday night = SLO Softball) but the other team forfeited. So, after we bombarded the kids at the Harvest Festival, we all headed over to Greg & Bonnie Johnson's house for some amazing soups!
As this Halloween has come and gone, hectic as it was, I still found myself missing that fellowship that we had last year. I love these kids here, please don't misunderstand me. And maybe it's just the exhaustion speaking here, but I have been missing SLO a lot. Please pray that I'd love and cherish the memories that I have from there, but that I'd be content and desiring to really BE where God has put me!
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