mercredi, novembre 02, 2005 TRBC Vacation Bible School: Preparations Part II  The rickshaw in production (top), and the final product (below)  I feel blessed beyond belief. Last year, I had a whole three weeks to get ready for the childrens' camp, and I utilized the full three weeks to make a whole bunch of banners and props for VBS. I had the fourth floor at my disposal, and a lot of time. I managed to make banners of (1) Mt Fuji, (2) Pikachu and Pokemon (3) Godzilla (4) Doraemon, as well as two theme banners - one in colour, one in black and white. The whole entire production took about two weeks last year - every single day of me going down and hogging the fourth floor till the cows came home. This year's theme is Ramblin' Road Trip - a trip around the United States of America. Rather unfortunately, the material gets it wrong again: last year the producers of the material couldn't differenciate between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture, and all the references, everything was so screwed up. This year, they've bent over too far backwards: I don't particularly want to educate the kids on American history and geography. It's bad enough that they've set the whole VBS in America; what's worse is that they seem to have fitted it into the 1950-60s sort of time frame. That's just being mean to the rest of us who aren't in America and who don't care for delving into another country's banal history (of milkshakes and drive-in movie theatres) when we barely know our own. (I speak for myself, of course.)  But I still love making the decorations. Last year, I paid for everything myself - I really, really wanted to do the decor, and it seemed like too much hassle to bother the planning committee for cash when the Major's hair was turning prematurely grey from the stress of the very first VBS in TRBC ever. This year, everyone asked for a budget, and the silliest thing happened - they gave $20 to each teacher to decorate the classroom, and for the station checkpoints, $0. When we finally had a meeting, everyone realised how ridiculous that was, considering that the checkpoints (especially mine, the music checkpoint) was going to be used in huge ways, they upped our budget, so now I am the happy owner of... $30. Whoop-de-doo. It's better than nothing though - but although I tried very hard to stay on budget, I blew my budget a zillion times over (so much for me being on The Apprentice) I made the caravan (yes, I'm making a facsimile of a caravan, or a Recreational Vehicle (RV) and the gas pump. I don't think I should have a problem with the gas pump - I'm planning to attach about six A4 paper boxes together for the general frame of the gas pump, then attach a garden hose and a kerosene-transfer-pump to it for the gas pump. The garden hose cost $1 (I am thinking of cutting it into two for more mileage), and the kerosene-transfer-pump cost $1.50. This year, SX and Joel became my saving graces, and by God's grace, the props are (mostly) done. Three days! That's all it took this year! You know what the cherry on top of the cake is? That we managed to do it with FULL DISMANTLE EVERY NIGHT. Meaning that we kept every single thing that we used every night. Nothing was left "for tomorrow", like last year, when the fourth floor was a mess for three weeks - and more, since we started on the Christmas decorations immediately after the camp. (I can still remember Esther's worried voice begging for help.) This is all good stuff. Lots and lots of paint, plastic sheets so that the paint doesn't get onto the floor - in place of newspapers which are bulky and don't always get the work done. I made the call to spend a bunch more this year on the plastic instead of the newspapers because I needed a way to mount the banners on the wall without using masking tape because somehow, the church administration really hates tape on the wall - and I really don't blame them,  This next picture is a picture of my Apart from these couple of smaller banners, there's also a pseudo gas-pump model, a huge theme banner (Ramblin' Road Trip!), and a caravan that looks like a bus. I promised them a Ben and Jerry's treat at United Square the next time we went round to do the props. Whoop-de-doo! ETA: Here are more pictures!  This year's theme verse: Psalm 25:4 "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths..."  The long banners to be placed at the sides of the stage  My "caravan" or "recreational vehicle",
which has now turned out looking like a bus, and which SX insists looks like "the NYPD prison bus". Bummer. [TRBC Vacation Bible School: Preparations Part II] |
0 Comments: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
