Chapter 7: Circumnavigation
Yea, the title is a fancy word. As a boy I was fascinated by explorers like Columbus, Magellan and Prince Henry the Navigator. I'll use any excuse to use that word; sue me :) . One thing that we had not done up to this point was float down the lazy river. You know what I mean; every water park has one. This slow-moving river that rings the park. Being worn out from hiking up to the slide a dozen times, I talked the boys into going for a float down this. Miriam was being a tad overprotective (to be fair, it's her job, I know) and said that Wilmer was too small as he wouldn't be able to stand. She wasn't keen on Carlos going either, but I told her we'd go in a double float and I wouldn't take my eyes off him. In fact, the water wasn't too deep for him to stand, anyway. The older boys and a couple of the girls came as well, as did Jessica, the other translator. I suppose it took us about half an hour to float down the whole river and get back to the start. There was all the sort of stuff that you would expect; splashing, going under waterfalls, the older boys horsing around and dunking each other. Just as we were getting to the end, I could see Carlos starting to get cold, so it was good timing. Miriam said that we should start getting ready to leave. While the kids had had a total blast, I could see that some of them were getting a bit tired, so it worked out fairly well. I quickly changed and then told Miriam that I wanted to get a shirt from the gift store for Axel since he hadn't been able to come. Originally, my plan had been to get all three of my kids a souvenir T-shirt, but I wanted to do something special for just Axel given how things had turned out. I didn't think it would help much, but perhaps just a bit. His grandmother picked out one she thought he'd like and we went with that. We exited the park and the driver went and brought the van around. While I was very sorry that poor Axel had broken his arm, it accidentally made me realize the best strategy for maximizing time with the kids - have CI bring them to where ever you are going to take them and then ride back with them to their houses. That way you can see their home still, but without using up valuable time in the morning. Plus, you can give them whatever presents you have at the end of the day. Depends on the logistics of the area, I suppose, but for anyone planning a trip, I suggest you try to do it this way.
Yea, the title is a fancy word. As a boy I was fascinated by explorers like Columbus, Magellan and Prince Henry the Navigator. I'll use any excuse to use that word; sue me :) . One thing that we had not done up to this point was float down the lazy river. You know what I mean; every water park has one. This slow-moving river that rings the park. Being worn out from hiking up to the slide a dozen times, I talked the boys into going for a float down this. Miriam was being a tad overprotective (to be fair, it's her job, I know) and said that Wilmer was too small as he wouldn't be able to stand. She wasn't keen on Carlos going either, but I told her we'd go in a double float and I wouldn't take my eyes off him. In fact, the water wasn't too deep for him to stand, anyway. The older boys and a couple of the girls came as well, as did Jessica, the other translator. I suppose it took us about half an hour to float down the whole river and get back to the start. There was all the sort of stuff that you would expect; splashing, going under waterfalls, the older boys horsing around and dunking each other. Just as we were getting to the end, I could see Carlos starting to get cold, so it was good timing. Miriam said that we should start getting ready to leave. While the kids had had a total blast, I could see that some of them were getting a bit tired, so it worked out fairly well. I quickly changed and then told Miriam that I wanted to get a shirt from the gift store for Axel since he hadn't been able to come. Originally, my plan had been to get all three of my kids a souvenir T-shirt, but I wanted to do something special for just Axel given how things had turned out. I didn't think it would help much, but perhaps just a bit. His grandmother picked out one she thought he'd like and we went with that. We exited the park and the driver went and brought the van around. While I was very sorry that poor Axel had broken his arm, it accidentally made me realize the best strategy for maximizing time with the kids - have CI bring them to where ever you are going to take them and then ride back with them to their houses. That way you can see their home still, but without using up valuable time in the morning. Plus, you can give them whatever presents you have at the end of the day. Depends on the logistics of the area, I suppose, but for anyone planning a trip, I suggest you try to do it this way.
1 comment:
The "riding home with the kids" idea IS a good one. With that method, if distractions occur and time gets "wasted", it's not your time with your child that is cut short - it just means that the staff must work a longer day. Too bad for them, but I say they oughta just suck it up, lol. Sponsor visits are a rare occurrence, and they are special enough for the child (and sponsor) that it warrants a few staff members getting home late for dinner on a few widely spread apart occasions!
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