The Holiday Program

I always expected working at Lake Waubesa Bible Camp would prepare me in some way for overseas missions. I learned how to share my testimony, how to relate to different ages of children and youth, became more confident speaking in front of a large group, and at least in part conquered my fear of leading real, live people in worship. What I did not expect, however, was that in doing overseas missions it would be helpful to know how to play Tube City. I did not think I would need to keep half a dozen action songs in the back of my mind to occupy idle bodies while we wait for a movie. Neither did I anticipate preparing crafts until the wee hours of the morning. And I certainly did not expect to spend hour after hour drafting schedules so as to include all the necessary activities and all the available staff and volunteers at the appropriate times and with the appropriate age children and for activities for which they will be excited… No, I simply did not see that coming.

Apparently, every Nursery and Primary School aged child at Noah’s Ark participates in a holiday program when they have breaks from school. I say apparently because before I arrived this time I knew very little about the program itself. So little, in fact, that I cannot recall if I even knew there was a program. Hence my slight surprise when, three days after my arrival, Piet told me he wanted me to take over leadership of the program in place of a missionary who would soon be leaving.

Trying to step up to the primary leadership role of a program I had never seen was… interesting. I was immensely blessed by both the missionary who had started the program five years ago and one of the Noah’s Ark workers who has been running it for the past two holidays. We sat down and had meetings where they did their best to try to explain the atmosphere and chaos of holiday time, the expectations of children and staff, and obstacles I was likely to face in the four-week break from school. As the end of term loomed closer, I felt completely unprepared but was ready to put an end to theory and see it all for myself.

The school year in Uganda begins in February. There are three twelve-week terms with a four-week break after Term 1 and again after Term 2. Term 3 ends at the beginning of December, which is the start of the long holiday between school years. My first holiday of four weeks can be considered a warm-up for the longer holiday that extends over Christmas.

For the program, the Nursery and Primary School children (of which there are slightly more than one hundred) are divided by age into five groups. Every week, each group has one craft, one game time, and one extra activity. Activities for the youngest two groups usually involved something like playing in the sandbox or making body outlines with sidewalk chalk, while the oldest three groups had a movie or game night. Along with that, we took the oldest three groups swimming at a nearby pool, one group per week for three weeks.

Week One, I was along for the ride… mostly. I worked alongside Hilda, who has been running the program recently and who organized the first week so I could see things in action before being the one to put them into action. I had a few responsibilities, participated in every activity, and followed Hilda around between times with children, preparing and learning what goes on behind-the-scenes. Week Two, I took on a few more responsibilities and became more familiar with the schedule and children. Week Three, Hilda took her leave; therefore, my role was significantly larger. I had a co-leader, but at that point I was the one enlisting her help instead of the other way around. By Week Four, I had a firm grasp on what was happening and no longer found it awkward to delegate, organize, and tell people what to do. Not too awkward, anyway. I realized the level of my responsibility as I was filling out some paperwork one day. Unsure of whose signature I needed for the “Head of Department” line, I turned to Piet, who straightaway replied, “That’s you!”

Aside from overseeing, general planning, and delegating, much of my time was spent preparing games and crafts for the eldest two groups. I quickly learned that not every game I had found successful with American children could translate well to Ugandan children. There were a lot of failures. However, Piet recently told us that true leaders make plenty of mistakes, so I took that information to heart. We did water relays, balloon games, different kinds of races, skipping ropes, hide-and-seek, and many other games. We ended the holiday with a scavenger hunt around the whole compound, which, to my surprise, ended with a smile on nearly every face.

 The most sizeable craft project I took on was teaching a small group of children how to make piñatas. Having only made one in my life, and that being nearly ten years ago, it was probably foolish of me to offer it as a craft before experimenting with it myself. I spent three days making a rough model in my house, collected copious amounts of newspaper and wallpaper paste, and prayed. Somehow—I’m still not sure how this happened, but I suspect it had something to do with the praying—over the course of three weeks we ended up with five piñatas that were not only beautiful, but functional as well. As a culmination of the holiday, we had a disco on the last Friday and children took turns beating the piñatas until we were showered with sweeties and confetti. (Annie, spending hours tearing colored paper into confetti made me sorely miss you and our New Year preparations.)

Looking back (you know, because a week-and-a-half ago takes some serious memory and concentration), here were my five favorite parts of the holiday program:

1    1.  Swimming once a week. For one, I like to swim. For two (Is that how you say it? Sometimes I can’t believe English is my native language.), the children like to swim. Well, they like to play in the water. Some of them know how to swim. Every week, I could spend half a day splashing and playing and carrying children on my back and teaching the older ones how to do somersaults in the water. I ended every one of those days in the good kind of exhaustion.

2       2.  Learning the names of more children. What a privilege to spend several hours each week with nearly every child here at Noah’s Ark. That is something I don’t get to do during the school term.

3    3.  The rush of the Nursery School children when they came for activities. Collectively, they reminded me of an ocean wave: I could always hear them coming before I could see them, once they were in sight I knew there was no escaping, and a few would pass by while the rest gathered at my knees and, if one of them had recently wet his or her pants, even got me a little wet.

4    4.  The excitement of my piñata group when I told them they could burst my sample before the disco. They had been gravely disappointed when I told them the piñatas were to be used for the disco, not only for our group. It took four of them with three swings each to make a hole and no one was hit with the stick. Though they all scrambled for the sweeties, they proceeded to sit down at a nearby picnic table and divide them evenly, giving the odd extras to the leaders. What a group!

5    5.  The end of the holiday. I couldn’t believe how drained I was after four weeks of this program when I am used to doing eight weeks every summer. I found it is significantly different, however, to put on a different program for the same children every week than it is to put on the same program for different children every week.

All in all, this holiday was a valuable learning experience. Yes, I was relieved when it ended, but not more than two days after our final disco, I was already jotting down craft and game ideas for next time. I never thought I would be running camp in Africa. Good one, God.