The 30 Hour Famine was this weekend at church, led by Wendy and the Young Adults (band name!). All the games and activities revolved around what life would be like in the aftermath of a natural disaster such as the earthquake in Haiti.
There were some really cool lessons, like a tag game where the taggers symbolized slave traders who kidnap orphaned kids and sell them into work or sex slavery. Those who were tagged were either sent out of the game with a card explaining what had happened to them or put in the game as a new tagger, because sadly, a lot of those kids grow up to become the monster that enslaved them.
We built cardboard homes to spend the night outside. The guys used trees and hay bales with their materials, but the girls just made a massive circle of cardboard, set a cardboard pole in the middle, and made a roof of tarps duct-taped together. It was pretty impressive, and easily fit all 11 of us.
Before the weekend, my boss warned me that the kids would hate me if it rained. I launched into a stirring speech about how they would learn empathy far more after experiencing something like that rather than just hearing about it. I prayed that it would rain and the kids would learn what it would really be like to live in post-disaster housing.
I should have been more careful with my prayer (isn't that often the case?). I laid in front of the door so I would know if anyone went out or in. That meant all the cold wind swept right into me throughout the night. It wasn't too bad at first, because I was wearing sweats, had a hoodie pulled up, and snuggled entirely into my sleeping bag.
Girls had to go to the bathroom, so probably six times in the night, someone tugged on my leg or stepped on my hand and asked if they could go out. I was usually about to fall back asleep by the time they returned and asked me to move so they could come back in.
And it rained. I was lying directly beneath the line where two tarps were taped together. The rain separated the tape in some places, and there was a line of water dripping onto my sleeping bag. Not a huge deal, because it's semi-water proof.
Until Ashley sat up and said, "Somebody wake Natori up!" Her foot was shaken, and she opened her eyes. "Oh craaap," she sleep-moaned when she saw the tarp bowing under water to within two inches of her face. She crawled out from under it, and not a minute later, the tarp gave out and splashed water where she'd been sleeping.
That happened to be at my feet, and the last foot of my sleeping bag was completely soaked. I curled up for the rest of the night, and every time I would try to stretch out in my sleep, it was like dipping my feet into cold, wet socks. Ugh.
Around 4:00 in the morning, a hole opened in the tape above my pillow. For a while it just dripped, and I avoided that side of the pillow. I was deep asleep when a bucket of water fell directly onto my face. I spluttered and felt my pillow. Completely soaked except for a couple inches of one side. I flipped it so I could lay the top of my head on the dry part, curled my feet out of the wet bottom of my sleeping bag, and tried to keep my face covered my face from the wind.
Unpleasant. And uncomfortable.
I figured everyone was suffering similarly, but when I woke up I found out only two other girls had gotten wet, and that mine was the worst of it all. Of course that was the case, since I gleefully wanted them to learn a lesson, and obviously I needed to learn it instead.
And I did! We came with nice sturdy cardboard, strong tarps, and duct tape, but still, our house fell apart from a light rain. I can't even imagine how people live in less during worse conditions.
I was semi-cranky the rest of the famine from lack of sleep and a hunger headache. But we went out to neighborhoods to collect canned foods for our food pantry, and that was overwhelmingly successful. And when it came time to break our fast, we sent the kids outside to look for their picnic. Wendy had put sandwiches, chips, and cookies in ziploc bags, then put everything into trash bags with actual trash and thrown everything into the dumpster. I thought it was incredibly cool.
When everything was picked up, I went home, barely stayed awake to watch Community and Parks & Recreation, then showered and went to sleep by 9:00. I went to church this morning, then came home and took a three hour nap. I hope I'm caught up on sleep now.
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