HIS Adventure: Science Fair

On Oct 19th I suddenly had a tiny taste of what it must be like to be a parent at a school function. At various times, I had about 20 kids from the orphanage pulling on my sleeves, arms, and/or pant leg saying “Have you seen my _____ yet?” or “Come see my ________!” or “What did you think of my ________?” Everyone was excited. It was the day of the annual School Expo which is somewhat like a science fair back home, except that it was not limited to just the subject of science. How clearly I remember my solar system project, and it always seemed that someone was going to build a “real” volcano and someone else was trying to hatch eggs under a light bulb. Remember those days?

There are 350 kids in the school, and apparently every student had to do at least one project, regardless of their grade. However, if the student needed to bring up his grade in a certain class, then he could do a project for the expo. Some did various kinds of art work. Some did projects for their English class, i.e. Douglas and Nicole’s first place puppet show performed completely in English. There were math projects, Bible projects, social studies projects, history projects, and a whole bunch of science projects. By the look of things I'd say that a lot of kids needed to help their science grade. Some were extremely impressive. Starting with the middle school aged student, they had to stand near their project and give a demonstration and explain (in Spanish) what was being shown to observers like me and to the judges. Additionally, the older ones were also required to have their demonstration in written form, both in Spanish and English! A lot of the staff and volunteers here at the Home put in extra long hours to help the kids to get their projects ready. The week leading up the the expo had Bobby And Britney's house looking like something had exploded; half finished school projects here and there. Bobby's carpentry and construction skills were put to the test. (See Bobby in the picture below.) Everyone was exhausted from the chaos at the end of the day, but I also felt proud of the kids and was glad that they were excited to share their special day with me.