Day 6– July 5, 2005: A day of firsts

Breakfast ended at 7:15 this morning, which seemed to early for our kids to even be hungry. But we shoved some food down them before bringing them to their first full day of Foundation School. Their school is basically the equivalent of the class we are taking, which teaches them to know God better along with lots of other things like geography and history. They also will go on some field trips to see dolphins and go swimming and bless others with gifts. We were excited to let go of the kids for a bit, and they were excited to have class and play.

The adults went to the main room to worship God for a while with singing and then we had some time to pray and truly commit these next 5 months to God to allow him to work in our lives and lead us where he wants us to go. It was great.

We also found out the work we each need to do to help out around here. Every student does 2 hours of work each day, 5 days a week. Because we have kids, only one of us has to do it. At first I signed up to clean up around the building (seemed easy enough). Then they changed me to construction, which I was excited about because they are doing a lot of building around here, and it sounds perfect for me to help out and learn. But, as things go they changed me again and I am now in the business of mowing the lawn 10 hours a week. I know. I start tomorrow. The cool part is that Junichi (the guy I first met here, on the van ride, from Japan) is also on my team. He has never mowed grass before. I enjoy getting to know him and his culture. Also several other new friends are on the mow team as well, Rodney from New Zealand and Toby from Switzerland.

I also hiked the 15-minute hike to go check out the surf today. There is a nice little reef here that has nice waves. I’ve got to get out there.