Surveying Strikes Again!

       Today marks both the one week anniversary of our arrival at CVK…And the halfway point in our visit at the orphanage. We are doing our best to make the most of everyday. It is impossible not to be happy here, with all of the children perpetually laughing, smiling, and playing.

Saturday morning we had a special breakfast! BJ was quite excited.

Andy spends quality time with the kids. They love his music!

       Our weekend turned out to be a nice blend of exciting and relaxing! Here at the orphanage, Saturday is a day of rest; work is not permitted by children or staff. Naturally, we took full advantage of this, and spent the greater part of the day catching up on some reading and much needed laundry. That night, Victor (CVK’s director) gave a special presentation for the children about his month-long journey to the United States. He showed a photo slideshow of the cities that he visited: San Francisco, Houston, and Boulder (whoop!). Each time the kids saw a picture of a person who had previously volunteered at the orphanage they would get super excited. It was really neat to see how these volunteers had made such a big impression on the children. After the slideshow, the kids (babies included) were each given a bottle of soda. A FULL SIZED bottle of soda. Keep in mind that this was 8 o’clock at night. I sat on the floor of the classroom watching them chug the sugar, praying that caffeinated drinks don’t affect them as much as they affect me. Much to my relief, nothing happened! The babies burped a little and smiled wide, but merely sat content as Planet Earth began to play, projected against a white bed sheet. We were all entranced by that movie. Clearly, baby animals are a universally enthralling concept, and lions hunting elephants will make you scream no matter where you are.

The kids take a break from school. Their kindergarten classes are so fun!

        After rebooting, Sunday was dedicated once more as a work day. Victor asked us to survey the area around one of the property’s larger existing buildings that is currently being used for pineapple drying. His hope is to expand the building in the future. With one successful survey already completed last week, we were quite confident heading out to the field at 9am. In fact, we were SO confident that we decided that instead of surveying the single required building, we would go above and beyond the call of duty and map the entire front third of the orphanage! Sonya, Steve, BJ, and I were all very excited about our new plan. NOTE: we apparently like to survey on the sunniest, hottest days of the week. For how cloudy this country appears to be, the sun sure likes to shine when we have surveying to do. Anyway, after 7 hours of measuring, defying gravity in our instrument leveling tactics, reviving long lost sunburn lines, and plenty of problem solving, we collected sufficient data to create our map. Success!

Steve took his surveying job very seriously, perilously balancing on the cistern edge.

The kids liked to help us take measurements.

        

         Meanwhile, Andrew and Andy took the kids down to Lake Kivu for swimming and volleyball to escape the hot weather. Before arriving, I was under the impression that the walk down to the lake was just that, a walk, a nice little stroll. Oh no. no no no. It is a HIKE. To get to the lake you have to scale down 750 feet (Steve measured) of hills and hope that you don’t lose your footing along the way, or else you will reach the water a lot faster than you planned. Of course, “what goes down must come up” (okay maybe not true in physics, but it works here!), which means that to get back to the orphanage you need to be in the mood for a sweaty, steep ascent. But believe me when I say it is totally worth it. The lake shore is incredibly peaceful, one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in my life. 

Andrew demonstrates his excellent volleyball skills.

      Today is Monday, and our team just finished making our to-do list of things that need to be completed before leaving CVK. Water testing, map making, tree measuring, wood collecting, education lessons, and video footage are some of the things that make up our lengthy list. We live for that moment when we can draw a nice check in the box next to a task. Oh, and add “get healthy” to that list. BJ, Andy, and myself have come down with varying degrees of colds recently, so Andrew, Sonya, and Steve remain on high alert, fortifying themselves with our stash of multivitamins to avoid the plague. 

We will continue to update you as we check things off of our list!

Jordan