We did three days of vacation Bible school, one in each of the churches we helped at. The fun would commence around 9:00 AM and go until noon when we would send them off with a lunch of noodles with chicken, and then pick back up at 2:00 and go to 5:00 when we sent them off with some sort of snack. All of these times are very approximate, of course. We would start with singing, move to the lesson, disperse for crafts, games, and face-painting, and then reconvene to close and give out food.
El Paraiso
Day one was at El Paraiso. A woman named Vivian sang some songs with them, and then my dad and I taught them the Hallelu song. Jonathon taught the parable of the lost sheep, and then Raqchell helped them memorize a verse from the relevant scripture passage in Spanish. Then they split off to go play games outside or do crafts or face-painting inside. The craft for the morning was making sheep with paper, cotton balls, and googly eyes. We only had six bottles of glue, so getting glue to everyone was a challenge. Eventually Angela (July and Didier’s mom) went upstairs and got some communion cups to put glue in. Then the kids just spread it around with their fingers. It was messy, but it worked. Everyone came back together around 11:30 to close out the morning session. We sang some more songs, did the memory verse a few more times, and then fed the kids lunch.
A few hours later we repeated the process, except that the lesson was about storing your treasures in heaven and the craft was decorating treasure chests and the snack was ice cream. It took a while to track down all the markers and glue, but the craft seemed less chaotic than in the morning.
Overall, this was our most hectic day. It was at the biggest church of the three and the kids didn’t have school that day (it was Colombia’s independence day), so we had a lot a lot of kids. This group also had a wider and older range of ages than any of the other churches. Combine older kids with relatively good living conditions, and you have more energy than you know what to do with. Since there were older kids there, we got to interact with them on more of an individual basis. I sat with some of the 8-10 year old range girls and learned a hand game and got to know a good number of them well enough to know their names and personalities.
Los Alpes
The activities of the day were much the same on the first and second days. Again we started with songs, a story, and a Bible verse and then split off for games, crafts, and face painting. There were a lot of younger kids, so we had to help more directly with the crafts. We only gave glue to the school age kids. We went around with the other bottles to add glue for the preschoolers. We added bubbles to the mix for kids who weren’t big enough to go around the corner to the playground where the other games were happening. After sending them off with lunch, a handful of the oldest kids stuck around for a chalk war. The boys were sort of vicious, especially the one who claimed to know karate, but it was good fun.
After lunch was the second session about treasures in heaven. I added “Yo Tengo Gozo” to my repertoire of Spanish VBS songs. They didn’t need nearly as much help decorating their treasure chests as they did making their sheep, so I got to roam with my camera. Fredo was present this time and sat himself over by the face painters to irritate Rachel. She and Brooke got pretty good at disappearing without him noticing. At the end we sent them off with some juice and a slice of pound cake for each.
VBS at Los Alpes was relatively calm but busy. It was calm because about half of our attendees were preschool-age daycare kids from around the corner, and a lot of those little kids were malnourished and lacked energy. They were adorable and easy to work with, but it was very sad to see how lethargic they were. They didn’t even make much of a sound (except for the few that cried), let alone move often.
Luciera
And now for something completely different. At Luciera, we only had VBS in the morning, but we still did both lessons. We did the lessons and crafts in a room with little plastic tables and chairs. First we sang and learned about the lost sheep. Then everyone did the craft all at once. Once they finished their craft, they could go out in the hallway and get their face painted. When everyone had finished, we all walked to the playground a block away to play for a little bit. We had bubbles, chalk, frisbees, and beach balls. When we came back inside we sang some more songs and did the second lesson and craft. We fed them lunch, and that was all.
At Luciera it felt like we were running a pre-school for the morning. All but one of the children were in the three-six year age range. We all sat at colorful plastic chairs at colorful plastic tables while each adult worked with a small table of cheerful, chatty little children. We held hands in long chains on the way to the playground and giggled and laughed at bubbles and beach balls. It was a relaxing way to end our VBS week. In the afternoon, I got to wind down even more sitting around reading and playing cards.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Colombia: a Few Key People
I didn’t know whether to group Mark and Theresa with the team or with Colombia people, but I’ve decided to put them here. Theresa is a Colombian, so that works, and Mark lived there for a while, and they weren’t exactly part of our NHCC team, so I think they fit here better. Without further ado, here are some of the people we were around the most. They are listed in alphabetical order by first name.
Alejandra is the middle daughter in the preacher’s family. She is reserved, and polite, unlike her younger sister. Her goal is to learn English well enough to move to America. She hopes to go to school here at the very least, and hopefully find a job and live here permanently.
Andrew is an interesting character. He’s 27 (not 22, like he told us on the shuttle ride away from the airport) and is well-versed in American music. It seems that every time we go, he will pick a new American girl to be attracted to. Last time it was Katie Zalar (who he called Jessica). This time, once he realized “Jessica” wouldn’t be there, I was chosen. That was rather awkward.
Ashlee the red is a little girl with bright red hair. Her mom helps with the kids at church, so she was around us a lot. She is adorable and she knows it. She knows exactly how to act to catch and keep attention. She’s a lot of fun.
Ashlee the not so red is a girl from El Paraiso who does not have red hair, but she is friends with Ashlee the red. Her mom sings at church. Last time we were in Colombia, I sat next to Ashlee during one of the church services, and she taught me some words in Spanish and laughed at me for not being able to roll by rr's.
Didier is quite the little stinker. He is 12 years old, I believe, but he acts like he's eight or nine. He likes to annoy people. He called us fat, ugly, and stupid in English and Spanish, and added a gwop every now and again. I got to drop an insect on his head and make him squeal. That was pretty fun.
Francisco mostly worked with the guys at the construction site, so I didn’t get to know him well. He took a while to get comfortable with us, but by the end of the week he was laughing and joking with us. He constantly helps at the church. Part of his motivation is the fact that his wife had left him without explanation a few months before, and he is trying to keep himself occupied to avoid going insane.
Fredo is a kid we spent a lot of time around last time we were in Colombia. He asked us to call him Freddie. He was a sort of shy, active kid, probably 11 or 12 years old. Now he has grown up, and asks people to call him Sebastien. Who knows why. He took a liking to Rachel, much to her embarrassment. Instead of running around playing games with us like last time, he had his hair constantly slicked back and avoided getting dirty.
Gloria was one of our returning cooks. She’s a sweet, emotional, older woman with a huge family. And she cooks fantastically. It was a joy to be around her all week again.
Joanna is one of the moms in the church. She helped cook for the kids and VBS and organized almost all of our basketball games. Despite the fact she is only about 4’ 5”, she is quite skilled at basketball. She has an adorable little daughter named Valentina who we called Luna.
July is a girl at El Paraiso. She’s probably 15 or 16 years old. Last time we became very close friends, but we didn’t see each other often enough this time to get far past the awkward getting-used-to-one-another-again stage. She made the two bracelets I always wear now. Last time she gave me a ring, but this year I passed it on to another girl, much to my immediate regret.
Liana is close to my age. She mostly sticks around Los Alpes, but is sometimes found at El Paraiso. She sings and plays guitar and piano at church. She is learning English and likes to try to talk to me in English. She was the first of the Colombian girls to find me on Facebook, so I’ve been in touch with her since this past winter.
Mark is a CCU graduate who was a missionary in Bogota for fifteen or twenty years. NHCC was one of his sponsor churches, and that’s how we got the link to Colombia. When he worked in Bogota, he helped plant and preach at two churches, but his goal was to eventually put them in the hands of the native Colombians. Five years ago he and his family went moved back to the U.S. and he has visited a few times.
Martha was another returning cook from last time. She’s younger and full of vigor. Her kids are Fredo, no-nonsense Paula, and the energetic but shy twins Brandon and Johann. She’s a fun person to have around.
Oscar is the preacher at all three churches we worked with. He is extremely tall for a Colombian, or for an American, even. He is not incredibly talkative until you get to know him, but from what I can tell he leads his congregations superbly. He is also the head of a wonderful family.
Patricia is Oscar’s wife. She teaches the women and children at church. She also does lots of crafts and sewing to sell and give to others. She is trying to learn English along with Alejandra. She is a lively, loving, and enthusiastic woman, and I love being around her.
The other Particia was the new cook on the team. She is quiet, but always in a good mood. At the end of the week, we learned that she was born with Down Syndrome, but had been cured. Given that Down Syndrome is a genetic anomaly, I can see no explanation for this short of a miracle. She still has some problems and will probably never learn to read, but looking at her you would never guess she had had this disease.
Samuel is Oscar’s grandson. His mom is Yennifer, Oscar's oldest daughter, but we didn’t see her enough for her to get her own blurb. Sammy is one-and-a-half, and he’s one of the most adorable kids ever. He even blows kisses when he says good-bye. He had us all wrapped around his finger for the entire week.
Teresa is Mark’s wife and a native Colombian. When she left Colombia, her goal was to avoid going back, but you see how that worked out. She helped Mark with the churches and led the women down in Bogota. As our only team member who speaks Spanish as her native language, she was an invaluable help, especially at VBS.
Valentina is Oscar’s youngest daughter. She’s Allison’s age and causes a good deal of mischief. We taught her enough English to insult people, and she’s an expert tickler. She and Luke picked on one another quite a lot, but it was in a friendly way. She hasn’t learned much English at all, so even though we spent the entire week around this crazy kid we did very little talking with her, and yet we had no trouble communicating.
Alejandra is the middle daughter in the preacher’s family. She is reserved, and polite, unlike her younger sister. Her goal is to learn English well enough to move to America. She hopes to go to school here at the very least, and hopefully find a job and live here permanently.
Andrew is an interesting character. He’s 27 (not 22, like he told us on the shuttle ride away from the airport) and is well-versed in American music. It seems that every time we go, he will pick a new American girl to be attracted to. Last time it was Katie Zalar (who he called Jessica). This time, once he realized “Jessica” wouldn’t be there, I was chosen. That was rather awkward.
Ashlee the red is a little girl with bright red hair. Her mom helps with the kids at church, so she was around us a lot. She is adorable and she knows it. She knows exactly how to act to catch and keep attention. She’s a lot of fun.
Ashlee the not so red is a girl from El Paraiso who does not have red hair, but she is friends with Ashlee the red. Her mom sings at church. Last time we were in Colombia, I sat next to Ashlee during one of the church services, and she taught me some words in Spanish and laughed at me for not being able to roll by rr's.
Didier is quite the little stinker. He is 12 years old, I believe, but he acts like he's eight or nine. He likes to annoy people. He called us fat, ugly, and stupid in English and Spanish, and added a gwop every now and again. I got to drop an insect on his head and make him squeal. That was pretty fun.
Francisco mostly worked with the guys at the construction site, so I didn’t get to know him well. He took a while to get comfortable with us, but by the end of the week he was laughing and joking with us. He constantly helps at the church. Part of his motivation is the fact that his wife had left him without explanation a few months before, and he is trying to keep himself occupied to avoid going insane.
Fredo is a kid we spent a lot of time around last time we were in Colombia. He asked us to call him Freddie. He was a sort of shy, active kid, probably 11 or 12 years old. Now he has grown up, and asks people to call him Sebastien. Who knows why. He took a liking to Rachel, much to her embarrassment. Instead of running around playing games with us like last time, he had his hair constantly slicked back and avoided getting dirty.
Gloria was one of our returning cooks. She’s a sweet, emotional, older woman with a huge family. And she cooks fantastically. It was a joy to be around her all week again.
Joanna is one of the moms in the church. She helped cook for the kids and VBS and organized almost all of our basketball games. Despite the fact she is only about 4’ 5”, she is quite skilled at basketball. She has an adorable little daughter named Valentina who we called Luna.
July is a girl at El Paraiso. She’s probably 15 or 16 years old. Last time we became very close friends, but we didn’t see each other often enough this time to get far past the awkward getting-used-to-one-another-again stage. She made the two bracelets I always wear now. Last time she gave me a ring, but this year I passed it on to another girl, much to my immediate regret.
Liana is close to my age. She mostly sticks around Los Alpes, but is sometimes found at El Paraiso. She sings and plays guitar and piano at church. She is learning English and likes to try to talk to me in English. She was the first of the Colombian girls to find me on Facebook, so I’ve been in touch with her since this past winter.
Mark is a CCU graduate who was a missionary in Bogota for fifteen or twenty years. NHCC was one of his sponsor churches, and that’s how we got the link to Colombia. When he worked in Bogota, he helped plant and preach at two churches, but his goal was to eventually put them in the hands of the native Colombians. Five years ago he and his family went moved back to the U.S. and he has visited a few times.
Martha was another returning cook from last time. She’s younger and full of vigor. Her kids are Fredo, no-nonsense Paula, and the energetic but shy twins Brandon and Johann. She’s a fun person to have around.
Oscar is the preacher at all three churches we worked with. He is extremely tall for a Colombian, or for an American, even. He is not incredibly talkative until you get to know him, but from what I can tell he leads his congregations superbly. He is also the head of a wonderful family.
Patricia is Oscar’s wife. She teaches the women and children at church. She also does lots of crafts and sewing to sell and give to others. She is trying to learn English along with Alejandra. She is a lively, loving, and enthusiastic woman, and I love being around her.
The other Particia was the new cook on the team. She is quiet, but always in a good mood. At the end of the week, we learned that she was born with Down Syndrome, but had been cured. Given that Down Syndrome is a genetic anomaly, I can see no explanation for this short of a miracle. She still has some problems and will probably never learn to read, but looking at her you would never guess she had had this disease.
Samuel is Oscar’s grandson. His mom is Yennifer, Oscar's oldest daughter, but we didn’t see her enough for her to get her own blurb. Sammy is one-and-a-half, and he’s one of the most adorable kids ever. He even blows kisses when he says good-bye. He had us all wrapped around his finger for the entire week.
Teresa is Mark’s wife and a native Colombian. When she left Colombia, her goal was to avoid going back, but you see how that worked out. She helped Mark with the churches and led the women down in Bogota. As our only team member who speaks Spanish as her native language, she was an invaluable help, especially at VBS.
Valentina is Oscar’s youngest daughter. She’s Allison’s age and causes a good deal of mischief. We taught her enough English to insult people, and she’s an expert tickler. She and Luke picked on one another quite a lot, but it was in a friendly way. She hasn’t learned much English at all, so even though we spent the entire week around this crazy kid we did very little talking with her, and yet we had no trouble communicating.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Colombia: The Churches
We worked at three churches down in Bogota: El Paraiso, Los Alpes, and Luciera. Each church was named after the barrio in which it was located.
El Paraiso
El Paraiso was our home base both this time and two years ago. We lived in its upper rooms all week, and we had more services there than at the other two churches. El Paraiso is at Bogota’s second lowest poverty level. The main room on the ground floor was nicer than most other structures in the area. It had a red tile floor, blue walls and structural pillars, and a bas relief painting sort of thing behind the stage area. It could seat over 100 in plastic lawn chairs and was approximately the size of NHCC’s fellowship hall. Upstairs was a kitchen area connected to a sitting area, two rooms with beds for us (one for guys and one for girls), a storage room, a room we used as VBS headquarters, an office, and two bathrooms with showers. Aside from the main meeting area on the first floor, the rooms were walled and floored in concrete and roofed with corrugated metal and fiberglass panels. The interior was painted bright colors.
Los Alpes
For both trips, Los Alpes has been our secondary church. They no longer have their own Sunday service, but they get bussed down to El Paraiso on Sunday mornings for a larger service. This was where the women’s group met while the men met at El Paraiso. The neighborhood of Los Alpes is at Bogota’s lowest level of poverty, and it’s easy to tell. While the Los Alpes church is smaller and not quite as nice as El Paraiso, it’s still nice compared to the surrounding structures with its well-made brick walls and a tiled meeting room. It’s one of the few two-story structures in the area. Upstairs is an office, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two rooms for general purposes.
Luciera
I’m not at all confident that I’ve gotten the exact name of this church/barrio. This church was established within the past two years in an area two affluence levels above El Paraiso. Compared to what we were used to in Bogota, it was a pretty nice area. We were only at Luciera for a Sunday morning service, one day of VBS, and an evening service, but with its much smaller congregation we were able to get to know people a little better. There were some adults there who were learning English, so we got to help them with that while they helped us with our Spanish. The building we were in had two levels, but the upper level had private apartments. The church “building” itself had a small meeting room, a craft/sewing room, a classroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen area.
El Paraiso
El Paraiso was our home base both this time and two years ago. We lived in its upper rooms all week, and we had more services there than at the other two churches. El Paraiso is at Bogota’s second lowest poverty level. The main room on the ground floor was nicer than most other structures in the area. It had a red tile floor, blue walls and structural pillars, and a bas relief painting sort of thing behind the stage area. It could seat over 100 in plastic lawn chairs and was approximately the size of NHCC’s fellowship hall. Upstairs was a kitchen area connected to a sitting area, two rooms with beds for us (one for guys and one for girls), a storage room, a room we used as VBS headquarters, an office, and two bathrooms with showers. Aside from the main meeting area on the first floor, the rooms were walled and floored in concrete and roofed with corrugated metal and fiberglass panels. The interior was painted bright colors.
Los Alpes
For both trips, Los Alpes has been our secondary church. They no longer have their own Sunday service, but they get bussed down to El Paraiso on Sunday mornings for a larger service. This was where the women’s group met while the men met at El Paraiso. The neighborhood of Los Alpes is at Bogota’s lowest level of poverty, and it’s easy to tell. While the Los Alpes church is smaller and not quite as nice as El Paraiso, it’s still nice compared to the surrounding structures with its well-made brick walls and a tiled meeting room. It’s one of the few two-story structures in the area. Upstairs is an office, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two rooms for general purposes.
Luciera
I’m not at all confident that I’ve gotten the exact name of this church/barrio. This church was established within the past two years in an area two affluence levels above El Paraiso. Compared to what we were used to in Bogota, it was a pretty nice area. We were only at Luciera for a Sunday morning service, one day of VBS, and an evening service, but with its much smaller congregation we were able to get to know people a little better. There were some adults there who were learning English, so we got to help them with that while they helped us with our Spanish. The building we were in had two levels, but the upper level had private apartments. The church “building” itself had a small meeting room, a craft/sewing room, a classroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen area.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Colombia: The Team
I’m not very good at relating events in chronological order without forgetting countless details, so I’m going to try reporting on Colombia in a different format. I will describe our trip by describing related chunks of people and places interspersed with anecdotes. First I will introduce the team. There were twelve of us in all: six teens and six adults, seven returning members and five new members, eleven NHCC members and one brave friend from another church. They will, of course, be introduced in alphabetical order by last name.
Jim Chandler: Jim joined us in Colombia for the first time this week, but he was by no means new to missionary work. He spent a good portion his adult life on the mission field in Spanish-speaking places. He was therefore fluent in Spanish and did all the sermons for the week in Spanish. Surprisingly, I understood pretty much everything he said, but I think he spoke with a bit of an American accent. He left a day early due to the death of his father. He knew when he came that his dad may very well die while he was in Bogota, but he came anyway. That takes a lot of strength.
Allison Gast: This was Allison’s first time on a plane or in a different country. She is the second of my four younger sisters. Despite the fact that she knew maybe five words in Spanish and has a tendency to be a very picky eater, she did very well. She was active in VBS, tried most of the food, and didn’t complain. She also integrated well into the team, despite my fears that she would fade into the background.
Jonathon Gast: Jonathon is my younger brother (I’m going to pretend that more than one person reads this and that they might possibly not know my family). He was another second-time team member. He returned to the VBS side of things and helped run the outdoor games.
Maria Gast: Hey, it’s me. I was returning for the second time. I was in charge of planning VBS and teaching at the women’s group. All went smoothly, thanks to plenty of prayers and reminders to chill and not stress over little things.
Raqchell Gast: Rachel is the oldest of my younger sisters and is also a returning team member. She once again oversaw the face-painting at VBS with the help of Brooke. She and Valentina were attached at the hip for most of the week.
Tony Gast: Tony is my dad, and he, too, was a returning team member. He ran the outdoor games for VBS and was always present when basketball was played. He helped Bob get all the travel plans coordinated.
Bob Kline: Bob (also a returning team member) was in charge of coordinating travel plans with the help of my dad and was our primary communication link to Mark. He was also the head of the construction team. He worked with the preacher's wife and daughter to improve their English, and in the process he learned a little more Spanish.
Brooke Nichols: Brooke is the NHCC preacher’s daughter, and was yet another team member who was there in 2008. She did face-painting with Rachel during VBS and was a constant source of comic relief throughout the trip. We may never know how much of her cluelessness was genuine and how much of it was calculated, but it brought smiles to our faces in either case.
Luke Nichols: Luke is Brooke’s older brother. He was also a returning team member. He worked at the construction site and made very little effort at all to learn proper Spanish. He liked to pick on other team members in a good-natured way, and got at least as much teasing as he gave. He brought “$w@ggg” to Colombia and left with the nick-name El Caballo.
Brit Royse: Brit was our brave non-NHCC team member. He knows Jim from work and decided to come along with us despite the fact that Jim was the only one of us he had ever seen until a few weeks before we left. He was quickly accepted into the team-family. He worked at the construction site and was one of our better-learned Spanish speakers. He chose the name “Flava-Craze” and may be teaming up with El Caballo to bring $w@gg and jerk dancing to Bogota.
Bill Sporing: Bill wanted to come last time, but that didn’t work out. This time he was determined to join us, and I’m glad he did. I didn’t get to know him all that well since he worked at the construction site, but from what I saw he was a great asset to the team and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. With the hat he bought at Monserrate, he could have passed as a Colombian native if you looked past the fact that he could scarcely speak a word of Spanish.
Keri Sporing: Keri is Bill’s wife, and I’m so very happy that she got to come this time around. She did crafts with me at VBS, and she was great with the kids. Not everyone who came last time worked well with the cross-cultural aspect of VBS, but Keri was very well suited to the task. She overflowed with compassion for the kids.
Jim Chandler: Jim joined us in Colombia for the first time this week, but he was by no means new to missionary work. He spent a good portion his adult life on the mission field in Spanish-speaking places. He was therefore fluent in Spanish and did all the sermons for the week in Spanish. Surprisingly, I understood pretty much everything he said, but I think he spoke with a bit of an American accent. He left a day early due to the death of his father. He knew when he came that his dad may very well die while he was in Bogota, but he came anyway. That takes a lot of strength.
Allison Gast: This was Allison’s first time on a plane or in a different country. She is the second of my four younger sisters. Despite the fact that she knew maybe five words in Spanish and has a tendency to be a very picky eater, she did very well. She was active in VBS, tried most of the food, and didn’t complain. She also integrated well into the team, despite my fears that she would fade into the background.
Jonathon Gast: Jonathon is my younger brother (I’m going to pretend that more than one person reads this and that they might possibly not know my family). He was another second-time team member. He returned to the VBS side of things and helped run the outdoor games.
Maria Gast: Hey, it’s me. I was returning for the second time. I was in charge of planning VBS and teaching at the women’s group. All went smoothly, thanks to plenty of prayers and reminders to chill and not stress over little things.
Raqchell Gast: Rachel is the oldest of my younger sisters and is also a returning team member. She once again oversaw the face-painting at VBS with the help of Brooke. She and Valentina were attached at the hip for most of the week.
Tony Gast: Tony is my dad, and he, too, was a returning team member. He ran the outdoor games for VBS and was always present when basketball was played. He helped Bob get all the travel plans coordinated.
Bob Kline: Bob (also a returning team member) was in charge of coordinating travel plans with the help of my dad and was our primary communication link to Mark. He was also the head of the construction team. He worked with the preacher's wife and daughter to improve their English, and in the process he learned a little more Spanish.
Brooke Nichols: Brooke is the NHCC preacher’s daughter, and was yet another team member who was there in 2008. She did face-painting with Rachel during VBS and was a constant source of comic relief throughout the trip. We may never know how much of her cluelessness was genuine and how much of it was calculated, but it brought smiles to our faces in either case.
Luke Nichols: Luke is Brooke’s older brother. He was also a returning team member. He worked at the construction site and made very little effort at all to learn proper Spanish. He liked to pick on other team members in a good-natured way, and got at least as much teasing as he gave. He brought “$w@ggg” to Colombia and left with the nick-name El Caballo.
Brit Royse: Brit was our brave non-NHCC team member. He knows Jim from work and decided to come along with us despite the fact that Jim was the only one of us he had ever seen until a few weeks before we left. He was quickly accepted into the team-family. He worked at the construction site and was one of our better-learned Spanish speakers. He chose the name “Flava-Craze” and may be teaming up with El Caballo to bring $w@gg and jerk dancing to Bogota.
Bill Sporing: Bill wanted to come last time, but that didn’t work out. This time he was determined to join us, and I’m glad he did. I didn’t get to know him all that well since he worked at the construction site, but from what I saw he was a great asset to the team and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. With the hat he bought at Monserrate, he could have passed as a Colombian native if you looked past the fact that he could scarcely speak a word of Spanish.
Keri Sporing: Keri is Bill’s wife, and I’m so very happy that she got to come this time around. She did crafts with me at VBS, and she was great with the kids. Not everyone who came last time worked well with the cross-cultural aspect of VBS, but Keri was very well suited to the task. She overflowed with compassion for the kids.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Book Review: Frankenstein
This book followed The Man Who Was Thursday in my Colombia leisure reading. It started off strong, but by the end I was thoroughly disappointed. This book may have been whinier than even Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I really don’t care how anguished Frankenstein was over creating the monster, or how emotionally devastated the monster was about being rejected by humankind. A sentence or two – maybe even a full paragraph, to be generous – would have sufficed to communicate that they weren’t very happy people. Furthermore, I did not find many of the characters very interesting. Clerval was a good fellow, the monster was somewhat interesting, the poor French peasants in the cottage had a touching story, but that was about it. I suppose Frankenstein was alright before he went emo, and I do support his decision not to make a second monster based on his Scotland reasoning (his initial reasons on the ice field did not satisfy me). I never really connected to any of the other characters, particularly Elizabeth. I really didn’t care very much about her at all.
I did like how the story was set inside a collection of letters. That was a neat idea. And I also approved of the fact that the guy writing the letters (I forget his name) decided not to drag his crew on a hopeless adventure. I’m sure I could find other nice things to say about the book, but I’m not sure what they are. Given my liking for efficiency, wasting over a hundred pages on whining was enough to completely estrange me from this book.
Book Information
Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Year Published: 1818
I did like how the story was set inside a collection of letters. That was a neat idea. And I also approved of the fact that the guy writing the letters (I forget his name) decided not to drag his crew on a hopeless adventure. I’m sure I could find other nice things to say about the book, but I’m not sure what they are. Given my liking for efficiency, wasting over a hundred pages on whining was enough to completely estrange me from this book.
Book Information
Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Year Published: 1818
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