Volleyball Girls:
There I
sat, on a bench in the middle of a village that sat at the edge of Burma and
Thailand. Across from me sat 9 young girls, and an older woman whom they
referred to as “Meh”. In the middle of this stare off I began to question what
I was doing there. I don’t speak a lick of Thai, and these girls surely don’t
seem to understand a word I have said, but there we sat, and there I was,
alone. No team, no translator, just me, my computer and my bubble gum flavored
icey.
You
see, this was not supposed to be as it was. I was supposed to be here with
Pbeng, my Thai contact/translator; their volleyball coach. I had met these
girls about 2 weeks prior to this moment and Pbeng had told me that these girls
are a big part of her ministry. She coaches them for volleyball, and someday
she hopes to truly share Christ with them. Just as in any other ministry, I am
excited to be a part of anything I can, and truly wanted to join with Pbeng in
building a relationship with them. Sometimes that means a water fight in the
city, other times it meant a good game of volleyball. Today however, we were
supposed to be making homemade soap that the girls could sell as a fundraiser
for the team. Let me just tell you how that worked out…
It’s 8:30a.m. Pbeng, Josh, Dan, Phil, Jeremy,
John, Lucas and I, all climb into the truck. The guys were headed for internet,
Pbeng and I however, are headed for an adventurous day of making soap. Along
the way, Pbeng drops me off at Meh’s house where I find the 8 girls. “I will
take the rest to internet and come back”, Pbeng says.
40
minutes later as I am showing videos of dolphins, the race, and pictures of my
family to these girls, Meh calls me into the house and hands me a phone. It’s
Pbeng. “Daniel needs to go to the hospital. I need to take him to the big city,
you wait there. Aroon(Pbeng’s husband) will pick you up soon.”
2 hours
later, my computer battery is dead, I have no translator, I am alone, and I
have no idea what these girls are laughing at. The only communication I have is
a child’s English/Thai book from their school. I can point to numbers and a
picture of a Rhino. That’s all the communication I can get. So after attempting
to learn to count to 121 in Thai, and pointing at the rhino several times I am
at a loss for what will come next, and the girls don’t seem too entertained
either.
In a
hope of finding some entertainment I grab a bamboo stick from the side of the
house, and play charades to tell the girls to jump over it and I will raise it
after each jump. Next thing I know, Meh grabs the bamboo out of my hands,
throws it aside, tosses a bucket of rubber bands at me and motions for me to
sit in a circle with the girls. (I am now thinking that I am supposed to braid
their hair…) The girls take a handful of bands and using both their toes and
their hands, they begin to form some sort of rope out of rubber bands. I slowly
catch on to their method, and do my part as well. 10 minutes later I am jumping
rope with a homemade rubber band jump-rope.
The
girls taught me all sorts of games. Limbo, some sort of balancing game,
jump-rope, who can jump highest over the rubber band rope (I won!!!), and a
game called “Does this hurt when I snap you in the leg with my giant rubber
band rope?”
About
1:30, Pbengs mother whom we also call “Meh”, pulls up in the truck. “We go pick
up the others from the internet”, she says in broken English. Next thing I
know, I am back with the guys at the house we are staying at.
Pbeng
came home a bit later, and explained that we are going to try again tomorrow,
so long as no more hospital runs happen.
I don’t
know what lesson can be taken from this. I don’t know that anything I did or
attempted to say made sense to these girls. I don’t have the slightest clue of
what they were saying, but what I do know is that we shared some laughs. I know
that we had fun, and that I am not here to say anything to these girls. That is
what Pbeng is doing. I am only here to put a smile on their face, and bring
this volleyball team closer together with Pbeng.
At the end of the day, no soap was made, but we had some
fun. This was truly a great day.
