When we first got there we took a tour. We ended the tour in Africa where we ate an African lunch and got broken into tribes. By that time we couldn't remember how to get anywhere so we grabbed the tribe to chaperone that we saw was closest. You'd think we would have picked Africa. No we picked the refugee tent. Which when we actually went up to we saw was just a mud floor. We were settin up camp for the night and collectin firewood. I was not sure how the night would go because there was lots of moisture in the tent and mold growing and that is one thing I recently discovered gets me stuffed up. All the moisture and mildew in the air. We gathered a bunch of firewood and met back in Africa and got our job assignment. Which we were doing in order to get cash to go to the market to buy dinner to cook on the fire for the night. While we were collecting firewood someone came up and gave us a life event note which read we had a stillborn baby and had to pay $500. At first we told them we didn't have money then Will said he had $1000 they said they didn't have change and at first he said he would wait till they had it to pay but then he decided to go ahead and pay afer they said they would bring it back.
We got back to Africa and immediately noticed we were gettin ignored and kinda shunned. People said they didn't know anything about owing us money and couldn't seem to find work for us. we finally got a job filling ditches with rocks. Some of which were boulders and had to be broken first. We then went to this central area to get payed. We were the last called in and again they wee very rude. They said we could not have any money at first so we just started to leave then they gave us $200. We went to the market to try to get some things but wee not really sure what we would need. We knew we needed something to start the fire and really worked on that and traded something we had found for matches. I thought we would need water to cook rice with (Esp. since there was enough for each tribe to have one container)but no one else did and finally this old man bought us some. Some of the boys did some odd jobs at the market and we eventually ended up with $1400. Will was the moneyholder and was afraid to spend it so we traded and got handouts for most of ou stuff. Every tribe was giving a box of supplies which had matches, ha. They kept saying the market was closing and we still hadn't spent money but ended up with some rice, a carrot, two apples, and a potato.
They closed the market and we headed to camp to cook our dinner. The first time we tried to start the fire it would not. We rebuilt it and it was going really well. We cut up the potato and carrot and put it in a pan to cook over the fire with the rice. It wsa so dark we could not even tell when the water started boiling. I kept wondering why flaslights were not on the list of items to bring, but later realized that was part of the experience. One of the teen boys roasted his apple over the fire. I thought that sounded good. mostly because it was so cold, So I did as well. we divied up what rice and veggies we had between seven people. We were just about done eating when another tribe came with there stuff asking to use our fire and one more tribe. We let them and help them get started cooking. It was so tempting to ask them to share since they had so much more food. It was very ironic that every one had come to the refugees who had the best fire because all day people were shunning us and not talking with us. The other kids had even started it when they heard the people in charge doing it.
We then were told we would not have to sleep outside because of the frigid conditions. There was a small group that still chose to. we headed out for hot chocolate and smores. Which I ate three and can usually only eat one and don't even like them that much, but was very hungry. I think Will even had more than me.
We had devotionals and reflections the next day and cleanup. It was a great time and we look forward to chaperoning another youth event soon.
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