magic bus

With a name like magic bus you picture a 70’s décor bus – purple and green with big pink and orange flowers or something like that. Sadly the magic bus is plain old red, with a yellow stripe….but its still pretty amazing.

Magic Bus is an NGO that uses sports and activities to develop confidence and esteem. May 16-18 girls from 2 of the aftercare homes we partner with went to camp with Magic Bus – and I got to go along too.

I was a bit nervous before hand – worried that I might be in the way, that I’d be confused since I knew there wouldn’t be much English spoken over the weekend (which I was), and I really had no idea what was going on – or what to expect out of the weekend. The trip was planned about 2 weeks beforehand, but I didn’t really believe it would work out for me to go until the day before I left.

Over and over during the course of the weekend I just kept thinking, “I can’t believe I get to be here.” And “I can’t believe this is real.” For starters their facilities were absolutely amazing. It was in the middle of nowhere, and there were amazing hills surrounding the grounds. There were trees and flowers and a big grassy field, and a little pond too. There was silence. I could hear birds singing. I didn’t hear any honking. I saw clear blue sky with puffy white clouds, and I pet a dog. On a very basic level it was really good for me to be out of the city.

I had an absolutely amazing time with the girls. They were so gracious with me. Some of them speak a good bit of English (and there were other aftercare staff there too) – so I could get things translated. And they were really sweet about teaching me new phrases. I really feel like my language skills crossed an invisible line over the weekend. I still have far to go – but 3 days straight does a lot to bring the pieces together in my mind. I know it doesn’t sound very exciting, but I’m starting to understand verb conjugation, and I’ve learned a couple of the “key verbs” that get used all the time. I feel like I can communicate in ways I couldn’t before. I still can’t say very much. I still have the vocabulary of a 2 year old – but it was so good to be able to talk with the girls and joke around. I’m definitely more inspired to study the language.

The other thing that was such a gift was the extended time with the girls. It reminded me of youth group retreats I used to take – and how you have so much time during that weekend, or week – and how all that time spent together builds relationship that gives you credibility to speak truth – and to love in deeper ways. I don’t have any illusions of speaking deep truth into the lives of these girls (like I said, I have the vocab of a 2 year old!) – but the deepening of relationships with them was such a gift – and I’m excited for how the time that we spent together at camp will effect the time that I spend with them in their homes in the future – how I am not just a stranger coming for a quick visit – but that we have an ongoing relationship.

It was fun to see their different personalities come out, and to “click” with some of the girls that I hadn’t been able to spend time with before (when I’ve visited the homes in the past, I’ve spent the most time with the most outgoing girls, and the ones who speak the most English – it just happens that way when you’re there for such a short time…but with 3 days straight I was able to get to know some of the more quite girls). I think for me one of the best parts of the weekend was realizing that one of the girls spoke Bengali. She doesn’t speak much English, and is a bit shy – so we hadn’t been able to communicate at all – and then there was this realization that she knew Bengali – and suddenly the door to friendship opened for us!

Along with all the good/fun/playful moments – I also had some surreal moments – thinking, “I can’t believe this is real.” Magic Bus has a climbing wall, and the girls did that, and rappelling, and some low ropes challenges as well. They live in safe environments now – and are nurtured and are on the road to healing and restoration. And I think sometimes since this is the environment I know them in I can forget the hell they lived through that leads them to where they are not. So there were these moments where I sat in awe at how far this weekend is from what their lives used to be.

While the road to wholeness is long, and hard (as I’ve mentioned at other times), and that one weekend at camp doesn’t solve all of someone’s problems – I rejoice at the window to wholeness, health and restoration that I got to look through and be a part of this weekend.