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The Christmas party
Posted by phildowding on December 23, 2011
Bex reports the Christmas party was AWESOME! She said... "We had three tents (marquees) by the school – 2 for parents (over 200) and 1 for the children, plus some VIP guests..
We started with presentations from various groups: a couple of Christmas songs from the nursery choir (sweet!) – the little guys wearing the tinsel round their necks. I’m still not quite sure why ‘Joseph’ was brandishing a baseball bat – but I guess Mary’s security was assured!
We also had a drama of the nativity story by the primary school team, complete with Mary, an Angel (wearing the obligatory bed sheet – flapping around), Joseph, a donkey (I’m still not sure which child got the short straw for the donkey character!), shepherds, King Herod and his security team, some wise men (all our children are wise, of course!) and a bunch of miscellaneous creatures around the manger. No children or animals were harmed in the making of this production I’m pleased to say! We had a couple of songs from the primary choir and also a choreographed dance to the song ‘Light of the World’.
The parents then had their turn – the mothers from the literacy and health groups formed a choir (the mothers in the long stripey skirts) and also gave a short drama about the importance of family planning (I suppose family planning fits into the Christmas theme in a ‘divine’ sort of way!). Not to be outdone, the Karamajong parents also formed a choir (these are the very colourful ladies with a couple of guys with feathers in their hair) who had us all jumping up and down like lunatics (some of us nearly had heart attacks in the heat!). There was a very amusing moment when Pastor Philip went ‘head to head’ with one of the other K’jong dads to see who could jump the highest!
After all that frivolity we had lunch (beef stew, rice, vegetables plus a bottle of soda each) and there was more than enough to go round – making it possible to feed all those community members who were stood outside the fencing looking in! After lunch we had speeches and then moved on to presentation of certificates and gifts for the parents who had ‘graduated’ from their classes (health, literacy, IGA). The IGA woman of the year was Maria and you can see her receiving her gift of a mattress from the RDC.
After the parents, the children received their awards (best in class, etc) and then Father Christmas arrived! All the COH children received gifts (clothes and sweets) from Santa. Some of the donated clothes were too small to fit our nursery children so Santa was able to bless some of the little kids from the surrounding community.
After all that, everyone went home (the children happy, the staff exhausted!) and the COH team prepared themselves for their own, well deserved staff Christmas party the following day. We all trooped off for a slap up buffet lunch and some silly games prepared by Martin.
And now we are on official holidays!"
You can see some pictures by clicking here.
