First of all, last night was the windiest, coldest night I've spent in my 5 trips up here. All tents have tarps over them, and those tarps were flapping like sails all night. Some of us had trouble sleeping through it, but not yours truly (Lori gave me some earplugs, so NOTHING bothered me). I'm happy to report that all the tents survived the storm (which, thankfully, did not include rain).
By 11:30 this morning all four teams had headed off to their respective villages. This evening each team reported in, and it sounds like everyone had a great day. Numbers in Kitwanga were low: only about 30 kids instead of their usual 60 plus. Apparently there are other camps going on in their neighborhood, so some kids went there instead. However, they still had great VBS time, followed by soccer camp (Brian Valley would like me to mention that he played a rousing game of soccer).
In Kitsegukla we had at least 71 - more came after we stopped writing down names. My team was a little nervous, so they rushed things a bit, but they did a really nice job. We found out when we got there that the main soccer field was unavailable, but Aunna took over the responsibility for finding an alternative field, and it all turned out well. Some of our team played soccer all afternoon while others entertained the younger ones with the jump rope and some sitting-in-the-grass games.
We've only seen one bear so far - and that was on Sunday when we visited Kitsegukla. He ran across the road several dozen feet in front of the van. The Kitwanga group saw 4 bears the same day - a mama bear and three cubs. Not that it's a competition or anything. . . Other than that we've seen a few eagles but nothing else. We'd REALLY like to spot a moose!
Tonight's going to be really chilly - down to 7 degrees. That's CELSIUS, you know. It's about 44 degrees to us Americans. But there should be sun the rest of the week!
Tomorrow's when the relationships really start to blossom. I'm hoping to have some good stories about VBS kids to share!
In Christ,
Sue Acuna
2 comments:
What language do the names Kitsegukla and Kitwanga come from? Seems like the prefix "kit-" might mean something.
Kitsegukla and Kitwanga (also spelled Gitsegukla and Gitwangak) are from the Gitxsan language. "Git" means "People living. . . "
So Gitsegukla is "People living under the sharp-pointed mountain," and Gitwangak is "People living in the land of the rabbits." Gitxsan means "People of xsan ('Ksan - also the name of our campground!).
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