Day 7 (July 25, 2012)

Today was probably the most exhausting day yet. I feel like I can hardly remember what happened! But I’ll try!

It started with my alarm going off at 6:00am and me pressing the snooze button about 4 times. Finally I got up and had my shower and tea, and then we left with Attila. We did another worship session when we got to the school and then got into our prayer groups and did a little prayer with each other about our day.

I was leading the warm-ups today, so I started with “Reach for the Sun” because everyone was looking a little groggy. Then we did Bananas (of course!), and then Ty led a super fun song called “Making Melodies In My Heart”. Then Rebecca led some games about power on stage that were really cool. First she gave 9 kids a number between 1 and 9. If they had a 9 it meant they would be the most powerful and if they were a 1 they were the least powerful. They all walked around in silence, but demonstrating their level of power by the way they walked, looked and interacted with others. Then all of the kids watching had to put them the order they thought they went in. They did a pretty good job - it was a neat exercise - really effective! For the other power game the kids each stood in a square tile on the floor with some free tiles around them. They each had to choose a number between 1 and 5, with 5 being the most powerful. They had to walk nonstop from square to square, using 3 steps forward, 2 steps sideways, 3 steps forward, 2 steps sideways, and so on. BUT, if they encountered someone who wanted to get onto the same square as the same time, you had to do whatever your power position would do (ie. stare the other person down until they move, get out of the way, etc.).

After that we started working on the musical from the beginning, blocking and choreographing as we went along. We almost got to the end of the play today! It was so crazy - the kids worked so hard - everybody, including us, was “on” all day. Those kids are amazing for practicing this musical non-stop, 8 hours a day! I couldn’t imagine learning a musical in Hungarian in 5 days and performing it!

I also got to pull out kids to work on singing which I loved - totally my area! I worked with Juli, the girl playing Cinderella, and helped her with breath support and getting to those high notes. We also worked on phrasing and relaxing the body. I also worked with the mice, which was fun, because they are super cute and excited!

Our lunch today was vegetable soup, then pasta (mine was this curly pasta with mushrooms, white sauce, and some seasonings - it was sooooo good!). Dessert was this chocolately mint cake thing that was also really good. It was so funny because one girl (named Zsusko) couldn’t get over the fact that I’m a vegetarian. She asked question after question, sometimes repeating the same questions over. We all had a good laugh :)

I was so exhausted by the end of the day. Probably part of the reason is that I cannot stop sweating. I don’t think there was one single moment of the day where I was not wet with sweat! It must be a Canadian thing or something. Ha!

On the way home we found out that today was Attila’s wife’s birthday, so we made him stop and buy flowers. When we got home, we cooked some frozen pizza, showered off, and now we’re just hanging out doing our work. I finished typing up the script (finally!), and Alegria and Ty are working on the invitations and programs. It’s only 8:00, so I’m trying to keep myself awake until at least 9:00. Attila is picking us up at 7:20 tomorrow morning, so I won’t really have a snooze button option! :)

Oh wait! I just realized I didn’t share one of the funny stories from dinner at the restaurant last night! At one point we were talking about customs in other countries (it started by becoming aware that the word “bus” is a swear word here), and Attila was talking about how there are a lot of places where the left hand is considered unclean because it is used to do “bathroom things”. We all understood that he meant it was used for wiping your bum...except for Alegria, who says, “Well at least people who are left handed would be really good toilet cleaners because it’s their stronger hand!” We all laughed for a LOOOOOOONG time about that one!

p.s. It seems that everywhere we go we either have to climb uphill or climb up stairs. And in the OM Training Centre there are 42 stairs to get to and from our bedroom. I counted. I’m going to have buns of steel when I get back. Just saying.