Blowing bubbles

The first afternoon our team was at the pastors' meetings in Rwanda, Ben and I found ourselves "unemployed" .  Terry had been escorted to a room of "youth", actually anyone unmarried.  Donna went off to teach a group of women. 
"Let's just blow bubbles out here in the courtyard, "  I told Ben.
"Are you OK?"  Pastor Ephraim called out.
"Yes."  I replied.  It dawned on me that there was no school in the afternoon, so we wouldn't be teaching just yet.  
 We'd seen children from the neighbourhood hanging around, peering in at the "mzungu". (white person).
Our first attempts at bubble-blowing were feeble.  Soon, however, we'd gathered a small crowd.  I took out some small bubble blowing toys I'd found at a yard sale in Canada, and we passed them around.  The most popular was a blow pipe that created a froth of bubbles as a child enthusiastically blew into it.  As it began to get chaotic, I asked Ben to gently position the children into a line, so they could take turns.  Soon we had a real system going.  I decided to just keep dipping the blow pipe, despite the runny noses.  (By then we weren't experimenting any longer ourselves!) 
Originally, I'd packed the bubble soap as a lead-in to the Bread of Life lesson, to illustrate the fragility of earthly things.  As it turned out, these were not even the same children whom we taught the next day at the primary school.  What a wonderful way to overcome the language barrier, though!  The children had fun, and we had fun watching them.  The highlight of my day!