The kids here are so wonderful. Today we had our Christmas party, which was absolutely hysterical and a good time was had by all. We decorated folders for all the kids and gave them all biscuits, cookies, and lollies. Joyce gave us some furry rim-hats for them to wear and provided juice. The kids were high on life and sugar and were such a sight in their furry neon hats with crumbs and huge smiles on their faces.
We had brought in a radio and people were dancing and playing with the balloons, and Steffi had so many balloons that there was at least one per kid. It was quite an experience spending Christmas with people who were so happy with so little. It was a good reminder of what Christmas really is about.
We brought some coloring books back with us from Kisumu and thought it would be a fun activity to do with the kids at daycare. I had brought a monstrous box of crayons from home; one of those boxes that has every imaginable color included. We gave each kid a page from the coloring book and told them they could use one crayon at a time and when they wanted a new color they could come up and exchange. I then went around to each of them and let them pick out their starting color.
The looks on their faces were priceless. So many choices! In a place where there are hardly any choices, getting to decide which of 5 shades of green to color a leaf with is a huge treat. Their hands would hover over all the colors, taking forever to decide and coming up to exchange every couple minutes. Despite Tony and Edward breaking and eating the crayons, the project was a huge success.
Lydia Taylor
December 2005