It was a sleepy day. There is nothing wrong with such a day, but I must admit that it does not make for the most exciting read.
The day opened with the team cleaning up at Departure Bay Baptist Church. Things moved considerably faster than our first cleanup, as we now had a better idea of what to do. The kids enjoyed playing with Olivia, the daughter of Jeff and Natasha, who were extremely helpful for our stay at Nanaimo. Before hopping on the bus back to the ferry, the team sang and prayed with the Nanaimo volunteers.
Once on board the bus, I was surprised at how sleepy all of the kids were. I tried to get some reactions out of them with my Nintendo Switch, but they were more interested in napping. Fair enough. I decided to follow their example and dozed off myself.
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The ferry ride away from the island saw the kids go on the outside deck to experience takeoff. It was rather funny to see Leah and the twins jump at the sound of the horn, which I tried to warn them of through pantomime. The kids then split into two groups, with one staying mainly on the outside deck, and the other staying in the front seating area.
While on the ferry, Shelly expressed her wish that we would get to see orcas/killer whales. While the amazing creatures do frequent the waters between mainland B.C. and Vancouver Island, I was doubtful that we would see any. Amazingly, Sany actually spotted some orcas lobtailing (sticking their tails out of the water and slapping them down)! She managed to film the act, which can be seen below. Truly a blessing that the kids got to see this.
The photo of Marie was taken because I found it very cute that she said she was craving French fries over a full lunch.
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Once in Abbotsford, we had a lot of downtime. We only had so much time to unload at Heritage Alliance Church, so we put what we could inside before leaving. The team went to a local park, while Marie, Shelly and I went to a Starbucks so that we could get some computer work done. From what I heard, the kids went to three different playgrounds and played a variety of tag-related games.
We regrouped at Crossroads Restaurant for a special treat. While the restaurant is western, its owner, Paul, is Cambodian. Paul very graciously treated the entire team to a free meal in a room set aside just for us. We were given four choices, all staples of western restaurants: hamburger, chicken fingers, chicken salad, or beef stew. I was nervous that the kids wouldn't be keen on western food (they have been eating Khmer cuisine exclusively so far), but I was glad to see them eagerly eat the food before them. Nearly all of the children chose the chicken fingers, which Marie said that while eating were describing as they were saying "very good".
As we finished up, the kids bid farewell to our bus driver, Marty, and thanked Paul for his generosity. The billet situation was unique in that all of the boys (the six kids, Sokthon and Andet) were staying at the same location! Normally it is three-four per billet, but this was a unique night.
I have started to notice that Leah gives a little bit of attitude in every photo I take of her. I love it.
The rest of the tour will see us use a large bus that has a built in television screens so that the kids can watch movies. Importantly for me, the bus has built-in wi-fi, meaning I can get blogs out at a better pace. The next blog will be about the performance at Harvest Alliance Church. It should be an awesome show!
God bless & Jesus saves.
So glad some of them got to see some whales "wave" at them. I have traveled the ferry between Vancouver and the Island a number of times but don't think I've ever seen any. :-)