Toothpaste Clouds

Nathalie and Bec decided to let me sleep in a little later since they knew I was sick. It was a good thing too because, despite trying to go to bed earlier, I was awake almost all night. I guess the late nap was to blame. That and I couldn't breathe through my nose at all.

We went to Katoomaba High School. The high schools in Australia are a lot different than the ones in America. First off, they are grades 7-12. They also have uniforms, despite being public schools. Each school has their own uniforms and it is funny if you are out when they get out from school and see all of the different uniforms. Thirdly, there isn't the same separation of church and state. They have scripture classes. A student can opt out of it, but otherwise they go to scripture class. We helped out with the scripture classes for 8th grade and then 7th grade. We were in a sort of auditorium classroom and when the students came in we divided them into six groups. I was partnered with Frank for a group of the 8th graders. James was the 'MC,'  Steve talked about the bible, and Amber gave her testimony. In the groups we did an exercise where the kids had to rank the importance of different things for their life. There were things like video games and also forgiveness and God. Steve gave his talk and Amber her testimony after this exercise and then we went through some discussion questions before they left. The seventh graders came next, but we switched so I just watched.

Photo courtesy of Bec Shaw

We stopped at the chemist on the way back to the church because someone had to get something. I decided to get a few of this drink mix that was like ensure. I wasn't sure if I'd like it because it was white chocolate flavoured, but it tasted really good. For lunch, they had frankfurts, so I just ate part of a bun and the drink I had bought at the chemist. After lunch, I tried to take a nap in the nursery, but Steve had kicked me out because he and Frank wanted to talk in there. He showed me another room that I could go to, though. I laid down and took a bit of a nap, but then just relaxed and played with my zune. Then Jon came in and played AudioSurf on my zune. I then went out to the gathering area and talked to everyone else before dinner.

We went to the house of one of the couples at the church for dinner. They had a really nice house with a beautiful view of the mountains. I ate a pasta thing, some crisps, and watermelon for dinner. We went outside to watch the sunset and there were these strange blueish clouds that looked like toothpaste, but there's no picture of them. After we were outside for a bit, we went in and had a group discussion about what happened that day and what was going to happen tomorrow. We then all went back to our billets.

Photo courtesy of Jon Wan