After breakfast, several of us headed over to the babies and toddlers. I played with the toddlers this time since I had already been with the babies. There are four boys, Fransisco, Luis, Jeremy and Edgar ranging in age from 14 months to five years. Fransisco is a special needs child who is very friendly and loves to climb. Several times he tried to climb over the barrier between the baby and toddler areas. Jeremy, Luis and Edgar loved to climb up the slide into a fort area where they would throw all the toys down to the floor. I would pick them up and then put them back in the fort and the whole process started over again. In the fort, there was a circle window for the kids to look out. The boys would reach out the window into a bucket of toys, pull them out and throw them on the floor. Needless to say, there were a lot of toys flying around the area, but everyone seemed happy. Later on, I had the privilege of feeding Edgar his lunch. The lunch consisted of rabbit, rice and fruit which I nicely spooned into his open mouth. Between my spoonfuls, Edgar would take a handful of food and stuff it in his mouth. Around 1:00, we left to get lunch ourselves.
After lunch, Daphne, Nicole and I decided to find the 7/8 year old girls who were in the play room. Right away the girls were ready to play. They pulled out several toys and games. Since language was a barrier, we did our best. Two of the girls wanted to play Twister with me and some of the others played a memory game with Nicole. Once bored with that, the girls pulled out jump ropes to show us their skills. We spent the next hour counting how many times a girl could jump before getting tangled up. We got the crash course in how to count in Spanish.
Church began at 4:15 and the kids were in charge of the entire service. One child put out the call for service by hitting a wooden board with a wooden stick just as they do at the monasteries. Two girls rang the church bells. A boy started to burn incense for the sensor. The books were handed out and the kids took their places to begin the service. Most of the children do not need the books because they know the services so well.
At dinner we met Father David Rucker from OCMC. He is a very nice and energetic man who is devoted to the church and mission work around the world. He took time to talk with us after dinner about OCMC and their current status. I found Father David to be very inspirational about mission work. OCMC is currently looking for long term missionaries to serve in the Latin America region. As the Orthodox community grows in this area, the need will continue to grow as well.
