I really enjoyed the trip and spending extended time with my students outside of the classroom. My prayer before, throughout the trip, and now is that God worked in the hearts of the students. For those who do not have a relationship with Him, I hope that this trip caused questions. At this point, I’m unsure how impactful the trip was for the students. During our reflection times during and after the trip, they said very little and were more focused on how well we worked together as a team.
So what did we actually do on the trip? After taking an overnight bus to Tucupita, we arrived at a hotel close to where the missionary Peter lives with his family. We did some work picking up trash at the beach, where my students protected me from a fisherman who repeatedly told me that “If I would marry him I would never be hungry again.” We also moved dirt at Peter’s house to protect it from heavy rains and weeded their garden. We left the next morning for the community Arature, which is off the Orinoco River. Transportation was 2 little motor boats that we were crammed into, along with all our luggage, for 7 hours with only one stop to use the bathroom and stretch our legs. I sort of fell asleep a few times, got a nice wind burn on my face, and tried to find new places to put my legs so they wouldn’t keep cramping up. We arrived mid-afternoon and I was charged with the task of de-bugging the mission house where we stayed. In the first 15 minutes, we saw 5 tarantulas and 10 bats...and these tarantulas were like National Geographic, furry, and huge. I have to admit I felt a little nervous after that, wondering why I had agreed to go on this trip. However, once we moved all our stuff in, cleared the house from bugs, and set up a mosquito net over my bed, I felt much more safe.
With no electricity or running water in the house, we set up trash cans with river water to use to flush the toilet and water with chlorine to wash dishes. Once it got dark outside all work stopped and we went to bed. Each day in Arature was very similar. In the mornings we broke up into 2groups to do different work in the community. One group went to a building called Cura, where they fixed minor injuries and cleaned and bandaged cuts. My group spent the morning each day shampooing and combing through the children and women’s hair to get rid of the lice. By the 2nd and 3rd day the job was much easier as their hair was less tangled and many of the lice were gone, leaving only eggs. Thankfully I did not get lice from them, although I made my roommate check me twice.
In the afternoons we ran a Kid’s Club in the church, doing crafts, skits, music, and games with them. The children loved it and our students were great with them! They had free time in the afternoon which most spent with the little kids in canoes on the river. In the evening, we had church each night. Several students shared testimonies.
in all, it was a good trip and a good opportunity for students to interact with people very different from them. I hope that seeds were planted in both the hearts of our students and the Warao. For me, I living in a house with 15 other people made me realize how "American" I still am with issues of possession. I found myself getting frustrated when someone took MY cup for dinner or used MY bug spray without asking. I was challenged to learn to share and realize that God is the real owner of what I have.
Many pictures are to come. I am in Aruba with limited internet connectivity and need to wait until I return to Caracas to post them.
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