Vancouver Weather

Ute helping a child writing a letter to her penpal

Nikki helping a Class 7 girl with Sudoku puzzle

Nikki with friends around the neighbourhood

Yes, rain, rain, rain today. Torrential downpours to drizzle all day. We have all 120 kids here in Priscilla's lawn. We played some games with them, did some soccer skills between the rainfalls, they did some word search and sudoku puzzles. They have never done Sudoku before so they enjoyed learning something new. Told stories, had some fun with them. When it downpoured they all ran for cover under trees, overhangs, wherever there was cover. Basically, most were wet most of the day in their shorts and short-sleeves, but they didn't seem to mind. I find these kids quite different than North American kids, they never ever seem to complain - I've seen them fall hard and just get up and shake it off, never complaining. So when they do complain, we need to listen because it is something serious. There have been a few wounds we've bandaged and of course the boy with the reaction to the wasp sting (as below in previous post), I'm not sure what they would do if we weren't here, as there is no first aid kit or much first aid knowledge that I can see. Really great kids, very respectful. We gave them a piece of chocolate each after lunch today, and every one of them bowed or curtsied as they received the chocolate. We bought shoes for them yesterday and it was the same, very appreciative. (Evidently, we made the shoe vendor very happy - they were starting to measure all the kids' feet to bring the measurements into the small town to buy the shoes from this street vendor. So I stopped the madness and told them to bring the vendor here with his shoes - his incentive? To sell more shoes than he will be selling in the next 2 weeks! So the vendor happily came to the school and it all worked out, just over a dollar a shoe. The funny thing is, when we play soccer with them, they take off their shoes and wear them on their arms while they play in bare feet.

Paul