Day One

This morning I got up bright and early to get ready to meet up with Rising Star. Fortunately they were in the lobby right where they said they would be! Everyone has been super nice and inclusive. We drove from the hotel to church which was just like ten minutes away. They have church in this little basement in some random building. All the speakers and teachers spoke english but I literally understood about 5% of what they said so I spent most of the time trying to avoid getting called on because I have no idea what we were talking about. Also, they had a baptism in the branch so we stayed for that. Then we made the drive to Rising Star which is about 2 hours away. The drive was long and hot and the roads are a death trap so needless to say I was happy when we finally arrived on campus. We got settled into our rooms, there are four of us in our room and everyone is super nice. Then we had a tour of our hostel which consists of squatty potties, bucket showers, and a clothes line. We had orientation and went over all the rules, they went on a tour of the rest of the campus. It's really big and there are 200 kids here. We also have a pet sheep named Lola and she walks around on a leash. Then we had dinner up on the roof of the hostel. We ate off of these huge banana leaves and had rice and vegetables and fruit and potatoes. There was also some chicken that I passed on but everyone said it was really good. I thought I was missing out til I saw the pile of bones on everyones plate. No thanks. After dinner we were assigned families which consists of like 20 kids and the house mother. So we went to meet our kids and play with them and get them ready for bed. The little kids had to be in bed by 8:00 so we played with them first and we took pictures and played little hand games and drew pictures. This little boy wanted me to draw a peacock so I attempted and failed so he laughed and drew one on my hand and it was just embarrassing. Pictures to come. Then when the little kids went to bed we stayed and talked to the older kids. They are all obsessed with Michael Jackson and one kid even knows the whole thriller dance. He got up and sang and danced, it was so cute. Tomorrow we start the mobile clinics, should be interesting!