Fun Unplugged
I eagerly look forward to the time each day when classes and community work are over and the campus comes alive with the sounds of uninhibited play! Each day at about 4:30 p.m., children launch themselves far above the cares of the world into the stratosphere of glee. The only activities allowed at this altitude are soccer, basketball, cards, dominoes, and jumping rope! No books or shovels allowed.
It is also during this time that I allow myself to roam the school on a hunt for whichever activity suits my fancy. The other day it was playing Frisbee with a group of students and fellow volunteer Samantha Russell, who was teaching them how to throw the disc from behind the back. Some days it is going to the soccer field just to watch the boys play soccer bare foot on what resembles, but is not quite, a complete soccer field.
The other day I actually built up the nerve to walk up to a group of girls who were jumping rope near the administration building. To understand the kind of courage this took, let me explain that jumping rope here is more like running into a war zone. The rope is like a whip revolving overhead at the speed of sound, and the goal is to not get hit. I decided that there must be something to this whole jumping business that I just didn’t quite understand, so I gave it a try. Needless to say, my failed attempts to jump fast enough to avoid the ferocious rope vanquished any curiosity I once had.
Having fun is not just experienced during play hour. It seems to be a pursuit of all the LCS students from the time they get up to the time they go to bed. They even make the trash pickup on Route National 3 fun. Just yesterday, a student and I made a game out of who could bring the most trash from a far away pile to a hole that we had dug on the side of the road. I unfortunately lost—or maybe I won!
