I woke up exhausted this morning. But duty calls, so in the shower 6:10am. I seem to be overestimating the time it takes me to drive to the Institute and arrived 15 minutes early. Boo. Ya. I waited for the rest of my BC group by closing my eyes and pretending to sleep. That didn't last long and soon I was with my youth. One girl gave the morning devotional on Music and Dancing. All but that girl and her friend were silent. I was a little worried about that. The day went on, and they scattered for morning classes. I saw 4 or 5 of them until lunch time when I had to leave the youth for variety show duty.
The variety show is on Thursday, and I am helping judge the acts - who we'll let perform. Wow. There were two boys, siblings in fact, who are incredible musicians. One writes his own songs, then sings and plays the guitar. GOOD songs too. GOOD guitar voice. His younger brother came in and played a popular song on the piano...title escapes me...and sang to it. When we asked him how he learned, he said he watched a video on You Tube and figured it out. Oh! "It's too late to apologize..." That song. That boy sings well too! Others came in with some interesting acts...a very, very short hip hop dance. 5 moves total maybe? A flexible girl who is also a body builder (she said she's not quite old enough to do it officially though. . .) There are more auditions tomorrow (including my group doing a lip sync!!! I'm like a proud mommy, even if they don't make it.) which will determine who performs officially.
During the afternoon classes, my girls were invisible. I saw a few, but had to sit near some wayward children to keep them in line. I wasn't much good, so another counselor came, then a BC. Their discipline worked...kinda. I wonder sometimes if we always take the right approach to the kids. Love usually is a better persuader than an angry face. Oh well. I couldn't calm them, so I guess what they did was better. Love takes longer for youth to accept seems to be, and a second's glare works faster. The last class of the day, I had no idea where my girls were, so I hid in a room, laid on the floor and slept. 15 minutes, there was more time, another 15 minutes! Amazing what that did, even on the rock carpet and no pillow. Back to variety show auditions. Lunch was not so filling...a lame ham sandwich just barely feeling soggy. I was stoked for dinner. I saw a plate and got excited! Fettuccine Alfredo and salad and bread! My mouth watered all the way to our spot under the tree. Bread was good. Salad was crisp. Alfredo was....chicken? tuna? a hybrid bird-fish? Unbearable. Noodles were hardly tolerable, but I was soo hungry I moved the chicken aside and slurped the noodles down to appease my angry stomach. The counselor devotional went pretty well. I wasn't sure what to say exactly. The topic was obedience, not exactly a teenagers favorite topic. My tactic is to get them to talk, and expound on what they say. Kinda works...my teaching is a work in progress. I've seen many of my group write in their journals and underline things in scriptures, so some learning is going on. YES!
The dance ended the day. From what I've heard, all my girls danced a few slow dances with boys. AWESOME! I danced in my own special way...after taking care of water for about an hour, I found some of my girls dancing, and went to join them. They stopped dancing, more or less. I felt bad, stayed for a little, tried to be cool, then left. Gosh, I don't think I'm THAT horrible at moving to a beat. Maybe I should dance in a mirror to see what every one else sees. I'm happy in my ignorance, so maybe it's just better this way. The boy I mentioned previously, the ballroom dancer, has easily become my heart warmer. He smiles every time I see him. Such a cute 14 year old. His t-shirt tucked into his corderoys. What a cutie! During the slow songs, he was always with a girl. The first time I noticed him I asked if he was "showing his moves" and he said no. I looked at him and said "why not?!" He thought for a moment, then put his hand up and said "I promise on the next dance I will!" And he did. The next slow dance he was showing her some basic steps. I grinned at him later and said "I'm proud of you!" He smiled. Later I tried to get him to do some lame-o hip hop fast dance stuff, to which he looked at me with a 'heck-no' then a "Would you like to dance?" I said "sure!" and he taught me a cha-cha. Lo and behold, the squirt's taller than me. I spent the rest of the dance sliding boys hands up girls backs to a proper height, and pairing small males and females, sometimes against their wills...they like it I promise. One boy was dancing with a girl 2 feet taller than him, no joke. Another boy asked a girl in a wheel chair to dance.
I'm off to bed. *yawn*
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