Forever Young.... I want to be forever young.....

Last night, Miriam and I hosted the half hour youth group meeting that is run every Wednesday. If you ever want to see what bedlam, mayhem and chaos look like when mixed in equal doses – you must try it! Because we’re rich foreigners, we could easily afford to dish out the $3 it took to purchase the 300 drinking straws and 12 rolls of tape for the 2 games. We westerners take so much for granted as these teenagers nearly wet themselves with excitement when we split them up and got them to build a tower with the drinking straws and

then design a costume with the newspapers.

Let me tell you – If I ever decided to reside here, not one of them would get a look in on the contract to design my home – they were terrible at it! The winner was the older boys who, to be honest, only won because they had the Kiwi (David) helping them. I actually was a bit disappointed in them until I realised that they had not ever had the luxury of wasting 200 rupees on a bunch of straw or pop-sticks before.

I must say though in their defence - if you want a suit or dress made I would easily recommend the girls to fit you out – their designs were very modern (today’s newspaper) and were quite intricately designed considering they only had 5 minutes from conception to the catwalk.

We finished up with a discussion on how many people strive for riches so they can afford the best fashion (made of material, not paper) and houses (made of bricks, not straws) but realise quickly that it’s not these things that make us happy but rather how we treat others and how we ourselves are treated. These kids have just the basics and they are turning out just fine – grateful for even the littlest things.

This message is something that has been with us ever since I met the kids here – they are so happy, warm and caring – not just to us but more importantly to each other, with the older ones helping the younger ones and everyone playing well together. This is particularly evident to me in the “big boys” soccer game where boys of 14-18 play each night – there is none of the arguing about whether the ball is in or out or nasty remarks when someone makes a mistake. I was particularly impressed that when someone scores a great goal or makes an excellent save, boys from both teams will congratulate him by clapping or giving him “5” – something us Aussies would never do if the opposition scored against us!