December 4, 2007

• Most of us wore casual again today but for a different reason. It was to get dirty as we cleaned and painted a corps/ housing facility.

  Breakfast was large and hearty as usual. Our first stop was at a mall to go to the grocery store for water. We didn't want to dehydrate as we worked in the sun.

  The painting crew was dropped off first while the rest went to a music conservatory at camp where they instructed kids on their instruments preparing them for the upcoming commissioning.

  

  Following the tour of the facilities, the painting crew then had tea time. They prepared us some tea and cheddar cheese sandwiches with butter. We started a bit late because of the preliminary tour and tea but we're going back tomorrow to finish what we started.

  I volunteered for the indoor painting of the cement wall. We had four cement walls to paint to match the regular wall. The others did other various painting tasks. Some had to scrape and touch up the outside walls. Some painted the bricks red.

  
  
  

  After much scraping, fear of lead poisoning, and paint rolling, it was time for lunch. There was this air raid siren that whoops once to signal the facility that it’s tea time or meal time. I felt like heading to the bomb shelter.

  We painted more after lunch and Major Ivan wore a make-shift bandana to prevent paint from splattering in his hair. He was painting the wall indoors with me as Daniel and Clint were scraping and touching up the ceiling. We called him a pirate. Then we called him a boy band member or a Backstreet boy. Throughout the day we'd just bust out singing, "You're all I ever wanted... dun, dun dun, dun dun…"

  

  At around 2PM we cleaned up and headed over to pick up the music conservatory people and took the bus to the hotel. We had an hour and then ate dinner with the cadets at the training college again. Yesterday they prepared for us KFC. Today was a treat of meat and potatoes on rice. It was the highlight of many people's day.

  
  
  

  Then with full red tunics and uniforms we went to play at the mall.

  Kevin or someone got some shopping carts to wheel our stuff over to the middle of the mall. We played in this oval outdoor area of the mall. It was pretty cool because it was like balcony seating for those watching from above. We played Christmas carols mostly and of course the crowd favorite: Kevin's medley version of Shosholosza. I think I heard some people singing along.

  
  
  
  
  
  

  During certain songs Kevin would let someone come up and conduct. Bryan handed out shakers for others to play along. It was a lot of fun. People kept gathering round to hear this American band.

  
  

  As soon as the concert ended it started to rain. We tried packing up as fast as we could because the downpour intensified quickly. The bus drove extremely close to the doors in order to help us move everything back in from the mall.

  

  The cadets were there supporting us so after loading the bus we went with them to a coffee shop in the mall for a relaxing end to an eventful day.

  

  Day 4 pictures

  • 10:23 pm
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