Good ol' Southern Hospitality

Sept 28th

Ok, so I fail at keeping my word with posting when I say i will...so sorry!

Alright so monday....great day!

We had a show in Alma, AR. ( I think...I really can't keep track of which state or town I'm in anymore). But either way, we were in a really small town, and this is the same town in which we stayed sunday night at the Days Inn, where we I just posted about.
So, I already knew people were nice in this town, thanks to sweet ol' Mary. So I had a good feeling about the school. We had 3 shows there, meaning it was going to be a long day, but I was fully prepared for it!

So we drive super early to get to the next on monday morning and we drive through the town, and I repeat, the town is extremely small. Not much to drive through, so I'm thinking to myself "I wonder why we have three presentations in this school, since it is such a small town, the school must be small as well.They can't have that many students, that we would show our film 3 times!"

WELL....we get to the school and it's like we entered another universe. The school is gorgeous and HUGE! LIke I felt like I was on a college campus, a small one, but one nonetheless. They had a huge auditorium, a mini bookstore to buy sweatshirts and all that, a big cafeteria, and though I didn't see the gym, we were told it was breath taking. So, I guess the building is that huge because counties and towns that are close by send their kids there.
The principal, janitor, and director of theatre welcomed us and were extremely nice. The janitor was really funny. Super tight with everyone, and offered us breakfast after getting a phone call from the cafeterai lady asking him what she wanted him to save him from the cafeteria. We declined, since we had already eaten, and wouldn't have had time to eat anyway. But it was very sweet.

The set up went well and fast. We had 3 young men help us, including Tom the janitor, and Steve the theatre director.

We showed ouf film to about 2700 students that day.Crazy! Talk about my fear of public speaking. haha. It really wasn't that bad. The kids were great. We started out with the highschoolers, Junior high, and ended with elementary :D

The highschoolers often times are to cool for school to show excitement or appreciation of the video, but they seemed like they genuinely enjoyed it. Two young girls even came afterwards to ask information about Camfel, because they were interested in working for it after graduating.

Junior High seemed to like it as well. To be honest, It's all kind of a blurr, when you have that many students in one day. But it seemed like it went well. The principal was pleased and talked with us afterwards for a bit.

Then we had about 2 hours between our second show and our third one and we were a bit conerned about how we would pass our time, since we had to stay at the school to check up on our equipment, yet didn't have much to do there either.
UNTIL...the principal, Tom, and Steve at completely different times invited us to eat at their caffeteria. They each talked about how good the food is, and how there is a huge range of options and it would be on them, so we could feel free to just help ourselves to whatever.
Ok....happiest day ever! I'm sure I've mentioned earlier how broke I've been. So i've been saving the few dollars I have for food, but it's come to a point where I have to sit  down and think. Ok....do I want to spend $3 on the Mcdonald's dollar menu....or do I want to spend $5  at a grocery store on milk and cereal/ or soup/ or microwavable food that I can save for two meals. Haha yea...very sad.

So needless to say, I haven't really been eating well for the past 2 weeks (we only get paid once a month...and I guess I need to adjust to that, because my previous job paid me weekly...and since I suck at money management....that's how I've come to this point. lol).
So hearing that I had options at a buffet style cafeteria...for FREE was the best news of the week (other than knowing that I will be getting paid this friday :D)
So, I went to town in that cafeteria haha. Praising God. I was like, oh God....you have provided food for me today. I was so happy!
It's funny because when we had gotten interviewed for this job, our boss had mentioned to each of us that a lot of times schools do invite us technicians to have lunch in their cafeteria, which when I found out about it, I was excited for it. But after 2 months of doing this and not ever getting invited, I had lost hope. Well, I just didn't think about it anymore, and figured, well maybe some people get luckier than others. No problem though. God has my back and tooootally hooked me up on monday. He couldn't have picked a better week for a school to feed me free (and good) cafeteria food!!

After lunch, we still had a bit of time before our elementary show and boy was I excited about this one.  Before the show, I asked Tom if he could make me a cup of coffee and he was more than glad to do it. So not only did they provide me with a great lunch, but my addiction to caffeine, was also fed. Wonderful!
I love doing elementary shows. The film itself is fun to watch and cute, but I looove the reactions of little kids to seeing our great big screens that are literally 40 times their size haha.

Oh Prior to this, I forgot to talk about the Principal of the Junior HIgh kids.She was a lclassy ady in her 60s and was so sweet to us. She really took the time to talk to us and get to know us. I don't know if it was because she was a female and felt more comfortable doing so, because usually we have male principals and though they are very nice, they don't really take the time to have a full on conversation  with us about where we are from and how we've come to this point and other things like that. So, she announced to the whole school that I was from Senegal when she introduced us haha.

So anywho, back to elementary, I just couldn't stop smiling at the sight of these little kids interacting with each other, pointing at the screens, giggling, not holding still, and just ... well.....being kids! No worries, no stress, just life and excitement for everything. "sigh" they made my heart happy. They absolutely loved the show to. I couldn't believe how many of them cheered when they saw Lady Gaga's name ! When the song played, they were all singing along and cheering. I was in shock!!! Haha, kids grow way to fast nowadays. It's actually kind of scary. hehe.

So that was my wonderful monday morning/beginning of afternoon!

After our three shows, we had the fastest tear down ever. We had three young men help us, including Steve who was great because usually we like to roll our own cords so we know they are rolled correctly, but since he is in the theatre businees, and works a lot with electronics and sound and media, he knew how to do it, so that helped make time fly.
After tearing down, we sat down with him and the 3 students and just talked and laughed with them for a while. It was quite excellent! Definitely a great way to start our week!

Once we were done, we drove about 20 minutes to our hotel and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. I had a great conversation with a friend who told me that my passion for photography had really encouraged her to step up in do something about her passions as well, and she just kept talking about how the Spirit had really touched her through my work and she got chills just thinking about how amazing God is with connecting His body of followers despite the distance. It was just great to talk with her, very very encouraging!
I also spoke with my sister, my father, and other friends on the phone. I socially survive on  these conversations! They really keep me going!

Yup...monday was a success! Thanks to you praying warriors!

Blessings,

DJO