Field Trip Prep!

The first week of the April school holiday has come and gone! We have stayed rather busy here at New Day, hosting visitors (Staci Powers), teaching fun classes to the kids (Music with Vanessa, Sports with Alex, and Writing club with Darbi), but we are mostly busy with preparations for our field trip next week! Field trips in 3rd world countries have the potential to be amazing…or disastrous…so we are praying for the former! Below is my guide (you never know…you might need it one day…) for how to prepare for a 3 night camping field trip with 53 people. And 2 babies. 

Step One: The Cooks did all of the grunt work of the planning process – finding us fun things to do, a place to camp, and putting together a sample itinerary for us to go over.

Step Two: Once we chose the activities, dates, and rented a bus, it was time to make lists, lists, and more lists! What to pack, what to eat, who’s sleeping where, etc! Darbi did the food list, Laurie did the kitchen packing list, and Blu & Wes figured out the sleeping arrangements and set up all the tents to clean them out and determine how many each would hold. Meanwhile, Ricky & Niki made numerous calls and emails to Lusaka to finalize plans and reservations.

Step Three: Shopping & Cooking! Ricky & Niki did all of the shopping for the trip, Laurie made banana bread and buttermilk biscuits, and Darbi made cookies. Eness and Lois precooked the first night’s meal for an easy heat-up when we get there.

Step Four: Packing! Housemothers were given packing lists for each child, New Day t-shirts were gathered, air mattresses, tents, and camping chairs were loaded up, and Vanessa & Darbi gathered the New Day kids to distribute new tennis shoes and play shoes.

Step Five: Send the Cooks ahead early and finish packing! The Cooks will leave on Sunday afternoon to do more shopping and get all of the tents set up! Monday will be a day of loading, packing sack breakfasts and lunches for 53 people, and hopefully getting a good night’s sleep!

Step Six: The bus will pull out Tuesday morning at 5:30am!