On Monday, we took our kids from the tutoring program to the beach (about 30 kids). And it was the best day. Walking into the slum that day, there was a light, playful feeling in the air. All of the kids started yelling, “teacha, teacha, teacha!!!” as soon as they saw us. Which they do everyday, but they were so much more animated and urgent about it. Not only were they the most excited i’ve ever seen them, they were also all dressed in their Sunday best, freshly bathed and most of the boys had fresh haircuts.
All of the kids ran down to the house that we have tutoring in as soon as they saw us – and we were there about 45 minutes before we were supposed to leave. We sat and played with the kids as we waited for the bus and there was just a loud excited chatter among all of them.
And then the bus pulled up. And kids started running toward the top of the hill. We had to stop them to line them up while the bus turned around. We loaded them onto the bus and kids of all ages shouted “teacha! Sit! Sit!” all of them wanting one of us to sit beside them. As we started moving, the kids all start screaming and waving goodbye to the slum.
We get to the beach and have a bit of a picnic in the jungle. Awesome, right? We fed them more chips, cookies and coke than their little bodies could probably handle. And I’m sure their parents were super excited when they got home that night…
And then we let them get in the water. And let me tell you, they may come dressed in their Sunday best – but they take off their clothes quite quickly to get in the water. But I’ve never seen as much pure joy as I did as they played in the water. There was such a childlike innocence about all of them – you would have never known what some of them go home to or what some of their situations are. There was just joy in the form of throwing sand, splashing in the water, bringing their “teachas” fishes, etc. And getting them all out of the water to go home was the hardest part of the day.
For an afternoon, they were just kids having a picnic at the beach and it was the best day.
