My team went to St. Ann's Bay Primary. We had to stop 7 different times to ask for directions - I think that's a record! When we arrived, things were a bit chaotic, so it was a great opportunity to throw kids on the spot :) We didn't have a chair for our skit, so I gave Essie a microphone and asked her to stall while we tried to get everything together- she took it like a champ!
But there is one curve ball I threw them that NONE of us were prepared for - we were all set up for our "Sin Chair" skit, and Essie had already stalled the rowdy crowd of hundreds of children for several minutes when Joey looked at me and mouthed the dreaded words, "We don't have the track!" We had to do something - we had a captive audience waiting for our skit. We had practiced a traditional drama version of the skit without the music WEEKS ago, so I was counting on the kids to remember. I yelled to Joey to take the lead, and I would assign roles and throw kids on stage as the skit went on. We could totally make this work... until I sent Marlee on stage without realizing she had never seen the original skit! She totally just made something up, which changed the entire skit. Now every person I threw on stage had to improv the rest of the skit. I had no idea how it was going to turn out and how in the world I was supposed to give a message altar call afterwards! Their improv version of the skit ended up being hilarious, and the kids jumped on stage without flinching! I was SO STINKIN PROUD of them for being so flexible and willing!
When we met up with the other half of our team (who was doing an assembly at another primary school), we learned that they had also been thrown a curve ball... The school had double-booked another missionary team to do an assembly at the same time! Our team was able to share only 2 songs from their planned assembly, but they were grateful for that opportunity.
From there, we returned to the center for a quick breakfast, and then we were back to work at the basic school. I was SO glad it worked out for us all to be at the basic school the last day!
Around 11AM, half of our team raced off to the St. Ann's Bay Primary for a second assembly (with another group of 1000 students). This time, the crowd was absolutely wild, and the teachers were making NO attempt to control them. We ran through the program, and the children absolutely loved it! They danced and sang along. Even the teachers were dancing and taking pictures with their camera phones :) My favorite part, though, was when Essie accepted our last-minute challenge to give the message and altar call after the drama! She did incredibly well, and we were so proud.
We went back to the center for lunch, and had a brief break. Our final assembly was at 3PM, and we just had to walk down the road to get there. This time - sheer anarchy - absolute chaos! We were trying very hard to keep them under control, but also have fun with them. In the end, I think we had to work alittle harder, but we all had a blast. The children particularly loved Lamont's impersonation of the wrestler in the skit :).
In the evening, we did some more painting and clean-up, and then had one last shower at the falls (there is nothing like showering under cool waterfalls!)
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