It's been more than a month since we started Kids' Club! It's crazy to me how quickly the time has gone, and how many changes we've made to the program since we started.
When we started, the original idea was to hang out with them playing game, singing songs and learning about the Bible for an hour(ish), but there wasn't enough time and too many kids, so we decided to extend it to an hour and a half. We had about 30 kids coming everyday to hang out and play.
Then over one weekend we went from 30 kids to less than 10. The first day we thought school was back in session. Then we found it wasn't. The next day we thought it might be the rainstorms that have been hitting every day. But unfortunately that wasn't it either. Evidently, when a group of parents found out their kids were coming to learn about God, they banned their kids from coming. We were told that if we were teaching English, the kids could come, but they didn't want them coming just to learn about God and have fun. Fortunately for us, I speak English.
So about two weeks ago, we started incorporating English and Khmer lessons into all our sessions. We have been slowly gaining back our class. Since these last three weeks have been the craziest we've had yet with illnesses and lice and more, it's been a blessing that things have been quieter, but after talking to Bella about curriculum, we are both excited to have the class grow again! So please keep that in your prayers!
Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like! (some of the faces have been blurred since we can't post pictures of the kids faces or our girls' faces)

The beams the support the roof act as out chalk board 

The lower beams have both the Khmer and English versions of the memory verses.

Our three rules in Kids' Club

1. Respect God

2. Respect Teachers

3. Respect Others

Preparing our group game...

The kids had to stand behind a line and toss straws onto the shaving cream covered face.

The team with the most straws stuck on the face won.

But in reality it turned into a shaving cream fight for everyone...

Bella helping one of the little girls practice writing her memory verse in both English and Khmer

We took about a hundred rubber bands, tied them together and tied on a medical 

latex glove to make a sling shot. Then we used it to shoot plastic eggs

Fighting for the egg 

It began to rain. Half the kids went home and the rest hung out wanting to sing 

songs in the rain.

Bella and me in the rain after. I wish I could have posted the rest

of the picture because the girls looked so cute!

Only in Cambodia

Came into Rahab's House today and was pretty surprised to poop in the middle of the floor. So as you can imagine, my interest was peaked as to why there was poop in the house. When I asked one of the girls, she very nonchalantly explained that a dog had pooped there. I realize that this might not seem like a reasonable explanation to you, but we are talking about Cambodia here, and on more than one occasion have I found dogs that have wandered into our open doors. So, I took that as a reasonable answer and thought nothing more of it. The poop was cleaned up and the day progressed.
As I was leaving to pick up kids from school, I had a realization. We just installed 2 foot high walls to protect against flooding. So in order to get in or out of Rahab's House, you have to climb/step over these walls. And the thought occurred to me: "How on earth did a dog get inside the house?" But again, this is Cambodia, you really can't dwell on details.
An hour later, I walked back into Rahab's House and found two more piles of poop and a puddle of pee. Again this was an attention grabber. Again I asked about it. Again, I was told that it was a dog that pooped and peed. Again, I took this as good response and went to teach my last English class.
During class I heard a dog. And it was loud. I mean very loud. In fact, it was so loud, you would think that there was a dog inside the house. But that couldn't be...we don't have dogs, nor do we allow them. But, I decided to check out what was interrupting my class. Low and behold, there was a puppy sitting under the desk downstairs.
So, we picked the little six inch high trouble maker and put him outside and I headed back upstairs. Then the barking began. Well, I'm not sure you could call it barking exactly...it was more like a squeaky toy meets a cat's meow. It sat outside meowing and squeaky at the wall hoping to be let back in. Then it decided to get protective and try and scare off cars that came near our driveway. So as it ran back and forth it sounded like a cat riding a bicycle with a squeaky toy caught in its wheels. It was hands down one of the most absurd things I have ever heard.
As you can imagine, my English class wasn't very productive today. Poor students were stuck with a teacher who kept breaking into giggles. Oh man...only in Cambodia...