It is 2:35, and we’re running a little late. Finally, after much help from my iPhone, we arrive at our destination, an apartment complex we’ve never been to before. A little unsure about today’s plan, we get out of the van and tell Carl hello. He asks us to take Purna, one of the refugees who is so kind and who speaks good English, and go around the neighborhood looking for other Bhutanese to take to the church. We do this, stopping at several apartment complexes on the way, and eventually load the van down with 4-5 more people. I bring up the directions to a church none of us know how to get to, and we head off, another van behind us.
We arrive after about ten minutes, already seeing the almost thirty children playing on the playground. We take the adults inside the sanctuary, where they will get to see a few presentations, including the Jesus Film, a film based on the life of Christ, spoken for this occasion in Nepali. They will also get to hear the testimony of Dan, a former Hindu from Nepal, now an SMU PhD student and Dallas church planter. We leave the adults there, going over to the building where the children are.
When we walk out to the playground, we are greeted by the sponsor of the group of 12 or so teenagers from a local church. They are there to spend time with the kids and teach them about Easter, along with several of their parents and some other adults. The kids are all happily playing, running and screaming. We’re glad to see the kids from our apartment ministry there, as well as about 20 of their friends and neighbors.
Apparently, by the time we arrive they have already done some crafts and are now outside to get rid of excess energy. Shortly after our arrival, by some miracle, we get all the kids herded back into the building in order to hear the story of Easter. They did, and did another craft. Here’s where the chaos begins.
The church group brought along two bounce houses (small ones), and six kids could jump in them at one time. The other kids went out to the playground. In clear view of the bounce houses they weren’t jumping in. Yeah, several tried to climb over the fence, and a few succeeded. Catching and carrying them wasn’t the most fun, but what can you do? The youth and their leader handled the bounce houses in a semi-orderly (which is pretty hard to do) fashion. On the playground, kids were everywhere. All you could hear was Nepali and English cries for attention “Miiiisss Miiiiss, come push me!:” “Miiiss Miiissss, he hit me!” “Teacher, he’s hitting me!” “She won’t share!” “Katie, watch me!” “Hey!” After dealing with the bounce houses for about an hour, all the kids had to go back into the playground.
Shortly thereafter , aka around six, the youth group went home, leaving Ariel and I and a few brave souls who left the wedding (that’s right, there was a wedding that Ariel and I didn’t know about) to watch the kids. We then let some of the kids join their parents and some stay outside with our volunteers and I, while the others went with Ariel inside to color.
As time went by, the wedding ended and the kids were sent over to the reception. Ariel and I cleaned up the kids’ area and headed over to tell Carl and Kerry goodbye. On our way out of the fellowship hall, where the reception was being held, Purna comes up to us and asks us to stay and eat. We find ourselves being ushered toward a table where a giant bowl of rice and several dishes of unidentifiable (to me, at least) Nepali food await us. We are given our food and shown to a table in the crowded room where loud music blares from the speakers and people sit, talking and laughing.
Our meals are rice and something I’m pretty sure was pork in a spicy sauce, along with a bright yellow saffron and cucumber mix and a side of some grain, corn and something else in a spicy brown sauce. To my surprise and delight, all of it is delicious (minus the cucumbers).
As we are eating and pondering our escape, an older gentleman who may work at the church, but at least knows some one (perhaps Carl or Kerry) at our table starts to talk with us. He seems glad to see more English speakers, so we talk with him about why we’re there, DBU, NYC and other things. All of a sudden, we see a mass amount of dancing commence. The older teens are having fun, with someone from the groom’s family and a handful of kids thrown in. Now, a girl we’ve never seen before approaches Ariel and tells her everyone wants us to dance. Ariel says no, eventually convincingly enough to prove she means it. As the next song begins to play, Carl and Kerry go up to the mob and join in.
At this point, I turn to Ariel and tell her that we should join. She first tells me to, and as I get up to go, she follows. Apparently, everyone really does want us to dance, because the crowd goes wild! I take advantage of the fact that Nepali music has a great beat and mimic the girls already on the floor. I wave my arms to the beat and snap or clap and just move. I’m having a great time, and Ariel looks like she is, too. More and more people join in, including the bride, with a little prompting. One of our girls tells us we’re great dancers, which was sweet of her. A conga line tries to form, but doesn’t really make it very far. The song ends and Ariel escapes.The next one begins and I keep dancing long enough to make it back to my table where I can gather up my plate and Ariel and I can leave. I can tell that this party is not going to be over for quite some time.
