World Vision Night 2008

This past Friday night we tried to experience a little of what people in poverty stricken countries experience. We pretended that we were from different islands in Indonesia that had recently been devastated by terrible flooding. Most people in our tribe had suffered some type of injury or disability through this disaster, e.g., some tribe members were suffering from hunger and malnutrition so they had to carry a heavy backpack for the rest of the evening, others had witnessed terrible events and were not able to talk because of what they had witnessed, so they had to bandage up their mouth so that they could not talk.

So in these tribes and with these different disabilities we played these games.

Our first game was called 'Earthquake Survivor'. We listened to a story of a young boy who survived an earthquake, then we had to answer 15 multichoice questions. The tribe with the most correct won. Well done to the tribe that got 14 out of 15 correct!!!

Our second game was called 'Water Source'. This was a relay race where we had to run to the source of water (paddling pool) and wash our feet. At the end of the game the leaders dared anyone to drink a glass full of the water. (After all that is what people in Indonesia often have to do: wash, cook and drink all in the same water!!)

Our next game made us think about the malaria that a lot of Indonesians tend to suffer from, especially after a disaster. All the leaders were mosquitos that had to sting as many as they could. If tagged we were given a coloured piece of paper. At the end of the game we discovered that anyone stung by a yellow mosquito had got malaria. The tribe with the least amount of malaria won points. But all the tribes had 2 people that had been infected so all tribes got one point.

Following this game we were all given bamboo (straws) and string (tape) and we had to build a shelter as quick as we could, because we heard the news that a typhoon was on its way. Points were given to the tribe that made the strongest shelter. Martin tested how strong the shelter was by causing a typhoon with a piece of cardboard. Well done to the tribe whose shelter stayed up no matter how strong the typhoon winds were.

Next our tribes all came to a tricky challenge. Power poles had come down during the flood and we had to get all our tribe members over an electric wire without any of us being electrocuted.

Our last game for the night was called the 'Food Grab.' Often in a disaster Aid Organisations come with food that needs to be distributed around a lot of people. We had practice collecting food for our tribe. One tribe member was blindfolded, they had to try and find the food item by listening to the directions their tribe yelled to them. They had to achieve this before the other tribes got there.

It sure was a fun evening, but hopefully it made us think a little bit about people in the world that who don't live quite like we do.