Less dirt, Less dough, More dancing

Hey y’all! Salah/Cake/Slammin Salmon/Indian Man here! There’re a lot more names, but we’ll stick with those for now. Today was our first rest day of the trip! On Sundays, the Village has two church services and generally just does fun stuff throughout the day since Sundays are for resting. We went to the morning service, and it was really interesting.

Having gone last year, I already knew what to expect. It’s still amazing to see just how universal religion is all around the world though. After church and lunch, everyone just split and hung out all over the village. Since the power was out in the house, I slept in a chair under a big, shady tree where all the kids were hanging out, for two hours. Yea, I was knocked out. It was cool though because kids would wake me up at random points, and I wasn’t bothered by it at all. After I finally woke up for real, I went over to the group of kids and hung out with them. I gave them rides on my shoulders and had a couple of kids on me at one point. They called me their robot so it was a great time. Being able to spend time with all of the kids in the village was amazing since we got the opportunity to really bond with everyone.

After a couple more hours passed, the whole team gathered to watch our superstars play in their soccer matches on the Village of Hope’s team. Dr. Dodson played in the women’s game, and Kyle, Joe, and Austin all played in the men’s game. Dr. Dodson scored her first international goal! Congratulations to her! I don’t know how the men’s game turned out since we only watched the first half, but our boys played great. Austin was getting pretty serious out on the field. Someone get this man signed to Nashville SC. Of course our first ever ASUN champions in Lipscomb history, Kyle and Joe, played awesomely as well.

After the soccer matches, the team prepared for the epic, super lit, glow in the dark dance party! Paul bought a lot of ice cream and cookies for the party and had glow sticks for all the kids in the village. We split up and went to all of the kids’ houses and brought them to the party by giving each of them glow sticks!!! It was SOOOOOO much fun! The kids were wildin’ out (going crazy) over the glow sticks. I mean, they’re super cool. I’m an adult, I promise.

Once we all got the kids out, it was time to party! I helped the DJ get everything setup and we were going ham (wildin’ out). I was teaching the kids some famous, classical, and world-renowned American dance moves such as the Soulja Boy, Whip, Nae Nae, Birdwalk, Shoot, Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, and some swing dancing moves. It was definitely a contender for one of the craziest raves I’ve ever been to. Not that I go to those often…. The rest of the team was just getting grabbed and pulled into big groups of dancing kids. It was hilarious. We had a grand ole time. Unfortunately, Sunday means tomorrow is Monday, which means school. So, the party had to get cut at 8:30 PM. I still know all the kids had an amazing time because I asked them and they said they did, and they were all hanging out with the whole team before they had to get ready for bed.

Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, McKenzie led a team devotional after our normal daily debrief, and it was incredible. She put so much time and effort into it last night, sacrificing her sleep for the betterment of our team’s spiritual growth. It was a thought-provoking session that really made us question how we saw this engineering mission trip. She also named a special trait that she thought every single person on our team had from her perspective. It made me really happy. If I had to name one trait that I think she has, it’s that she serves as an inspiration to everyone she interacts with. Thanks for being an inspiration McKenzie!

Not many pictures today because we were just having way too much fun. Sorry about that! Everyone is still alive, well, thriving, and jivin’ though (is that still a thing?). Thank you to all those reading who has supported me on this trip, and thank you to everyone else reading and supporting our entire team! We really hope you appreciate our story and continue to appreciate it as the story continues to develop. I can promise you there’s so much more to come. For now, please pray for us as we head into a week of what will be intense labor working on the project!

Until I land in the states and am reunited with my best frands (you know who you are),

Salah :)