We Cannot Direct the Wind....

Each day, the UBECI staff, my fellow volunteers and I work at a market in morning, take a break for a leisurely lunch, and then return to the markets in the afternoon. Today was obviously no different--but after we finished eating, I and my friends found ourselves exceptionally bored. It was a little before 1 pm and we weren´t due to start work again until 2, so we decided to walk through the streets of the city--pretty quickly, seemingly with purpose, I noticed--but we really had no idea where we were going. At about 1:30, we decided to head up to the market a little early, without the staff. Danny, our "boss," was working in an internet cafe, so we stopped in and told him where we were going. He smiled and just told us to be careful, so we made our way back up the hill to our work area.

Every day, we put up a tent in the area where we work. It is supposed to simulate a classroom, more or less, and is a tiny part of the scholarization process that children that come to UBECI activities undergo. Focus. Calm down. You are in a learning space, it subconciously tells these superbly energetic youth. Putting up the tent is actually a surprisingly arduous task...so my friends and I decided that we would surprise Danny and the rest of the staff by having everything ready to go when they arrived!

Somehow, with kids climbing all over us and putting tent pieces wherever they thought correct, we managed to get this ghetto thing standing. We were stupidly proud, really, that we had gotten everything ready for the kids earlier than usual and that Danny wouldn´t have to do any preparation when he arrived. Lisa and I went to the other side of the market to fill a jug with water for the kids to wash their hands--yet another daily chore that the staff wouldn´t have to do! We returned and got the hand washing station ready.

Just as I bent down to help Lisa pour our hand-washing water, I heard dozens of children--and volunteers--screaming behind me. I turned around quickly--the tent was nowhere in my line of vision, but everyone was pointing upwards....

And there it was--literally 30 feet in the air, if not higher--half of a tent, flying through the sky! Looking at it, I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado. One of the legs caught on to a wire and dangled there for a few long seconds, probably some of the scariest of my life. I knew it would inevitably come crashing down, 28 metal tubes and all--but where? On who?! Could we possibly be responsible for some serious injury today? My heart was literally doing somersaults. It was totally our fault, too, if not mine alone, as I was the volunteer with the most seniority. It really hadn´t been windy, so I had completly forgotten to tie the tent to anything!

The tent did come down from the sky very soon after. The metal rods of the tent crashed against the tin rooves of the marketplace. Pieces of the tent went EVERYWHERE. It was one of the most awkward and embarrassing experiences of my life, but none of us could stop laughing. We stood there, with all of the kids, in complete shock. Once we snapped out of it and realized no one had been hurt, we ran down to where the tent had landed to try to get the pieces together, still giggling out of complete embarrassment. We managed to find 27 of the 28 metal rods, rendering the tent completely useless in 10 seconds.

None of the staff was openly upset or angry, but it was certainly embarrassing for all of us! We explained to Danny and the others how proud we were to have had everything done before 2, and they just laughed. We are probably going to pool our money and buy a new tent for UBECI. But I´m just glad that it´s all over, and that the only damage done at the scene was to one market roof made of tarp-- one that costs $4.85 to replace.