We went on base this morning around 8:00 and had breakfast before working on our craft plans for the day. The kids arrived at 10:00 with the day beginning shortly after. Miss Wynne read our morning story and we had craft group rotations. Mr. Skylar and Miss Jayme took groups back for today's "Challenge". The Challenge consisted of the kids sitting evenly distributed around a bowl and attempting to toss "poms" into the bowl. They were encouraged to compliment each other on their teammate's successes. We noticed that this event had an effect on the kid's attitudes throughout the day. They were complimenting each other during several activities for the rest of the day.
After several groups had finished the challenge for the day it was finally lunch time! Today for lunch we had pizza, salad, and Capri Sun… which was extremely popular among both the little kids and the big kids. During lunch I had a sort of eye-opening experience. I was talking to a girl in my group about her birthday, which most kids are extremely excited to talk about. When I asked her what day her birthday was on she immediately went from smiling and bubbly to sad. She replied, "My birthday is shortly after my dad gets back from far away. I don't know when he will be back, isn't that sad?" I had absolutely no idea of what to even begin to say to her. I just sat there in shock and agreed with her that it is extremely sad that her dad is away but also very brave for doing what he is doing. I had not even thought about the kids in my group having parents that are not there for them right now. Growing up always having both of my parents around made it hard for me to even think about what types of different experiences these kids go through on a daily basis. After lunch, we finished up craft groups and Challenges and we had a great time at recess! Outside during recess I had another little girl in my group come running up to me on several different occasions giving me flowers and telling me to "Give them to my sister, mom, or grandma." I asked her if I could have one for my dad as well and she said, "Oh…yes I guess….I guess I didn't think about dads." I'm still not completely sure, but I think her dad may be deployed as well just based on her reaction when I brought up the idea of my dad. Shortly after this happened it was time to go back in and begin packing up all of the kid's crafts into their backpacks. After Jayme read a few short stories to the kids it was time for the parents to pick them up.
Once we were all done cleaning up after the kids were gone we headed over to the Backdoor Boutique. I see this sort of as a "Salvation Army" on base for the troops who do not have as much as others and may need a little help providing several household items for themselves and their families. This was another amazing eye-opening experience to fully understand that even soldiers, who spend nearly every day defending our country and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice are not able to supply their families with basic everyday items that we may take for granted. This also made me realize how much work ALL of these amazing people do on a daily basis just to help soldiers who may desperately need it. Working with Shirley has been awesome so far this break, and we have learned much more than I could have ever hoped from them already!
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