Summer has officially arrived here in Portugal (according to my standards - the Portuguese still believe it's spring and continue to wear long pants and jackets). The temperatures this past week have ranged from 23-32 degrees celcius, which has found me in shorts, tank tops and flip flops. Love it!! I have enjoyed some moments in the morning, sitting on our balcony with my coffee while I do my life journaling. Us girls have enjoyed sipping something cool to drink while we chat. We are just trying to enjoy the Portugal sun while we can. This next week is looking like temperatures will continue to be like they were this past week. I anticipate a lovely day off on Monday enjoying the sunshine at a local cafe while I journal and drink the perfect cup of coffee. Total bliss!!
Now for a little of what I have been up to this past week:
The majority of the week was full of our usual activities: ESL, Portuguese language classes, bible studies and prep time. But the last 2 days in particular have been full of activity.
Friday morning we had the opportunity to go to a local elementary school to sing some songs for the kids over the lunch hour. The purpose as we knew it, was to sing some worship songs with the kids. Due to a great deal of miscommunication, this did not exactly go according to plan. Prior to Friday, we had very few details about what was expected of us, but what we did know, was that we would be singing some worship songs to 6-10 year olds for an hour, that we would have mics and that we would be singing outside by the playground.
Well....we showed up and discovered we would be singing in a tiled wall enclosure, not exactly by the playground (which makes the sound just bounce like crazy so any noise made was a million times louder than it needed to be). The mics were not working, so not only could you not hear 7 people sing, but we also were unable to communicate with us. Lastly, these kids were not interested in listening to worship music - they needed "get up and move" kinda songs. The pure level of gong show activity was at its highest, but it was a prime opportunity for learning.
Rumor has it they want us to come and do this again, so we will be modifying our songs and our approach. My head may have been ringing after Friday morning's performance, but memories were definitely made. We were all able to laugh about the whole experience :)
Eventually we got overtaken by all the kids. My music ended up being taken away from me.
7pm Friday night, the youth lock-in commenced. Despite the tiredness and exhaustion that plagued my body, it was a really good time with the youth. There was a really good turnout - there were about 26 people in attendance and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was good to chat with the youth and get to know them better and it was even cooler to see the youth getting to know each other better.
Celma, Josephina & Mila
Tatyana
Celma and Sofia
And no youth event is complete without a rousing game of Spoons. Who would have thought the game Spoons would be so demanding???
I have spent the last day and a half catching up on some much needed sleep after the all-nighter in order to take on another week. Bring on more coffee and lots more sunshine!
sounds like a blast! :-)
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