Gabriel and Emma (Emmanuel)
I cannot believe it is already the end of January! The past two months have flown by…the kids are back in school after 6 weeks of vacation. The school year starts in January here, and we have our first group of children who will be graduating next November and going off to boarding school. I know it is still a year away, but the way this past year has flown by, I want to cherish each moment with these children because before I know it, they will be off to secondary school and I will miss them dearly. Maybe not the hormones and going through puberty part, but certainly all of rest of it.
Our Social Workers Agael and Jonathan on a typical Sunday, just "hanging around" :)
We had a great time last weekend at Bougainvillea, a local lodge in Karatu. Over the vacation period, we had a reading contest and the top two prizes were as follows: 25 books read and the child could go swimming at the lodge, 30 books read, the child could have a grownup dinner in the volunteer house with all of the volunteers. We had two children who had dinner with us and that was so much fun. They chose the menu, which was fried chicken, French fries (which are known here as Chips) and cake. They dressed up for the occasion and even had their shirts tucked in! We had 7 children go swimming. I use the term loosely as NO ONE knew how to swim, but boy they loved the water. It meant we had to have several volunteers in the freezing pool (which was really fun, NOT) there was a tremendous amount of kicking and dog paddling and laughter. Lucy provided some serious entertainment as she would go underwater, frantically move her arms and legs and actually not move an inch. I still haven’t figured out how that is possible, but it sure was funny. After two hours she could swim about 5 feet, which was huge progress considering the fact she was stationary for the first hour!
I will try and write more in the future. One more month and I will have been here a year. Hard to believe… I have made some wonderful friends this past year. We have had a great group of volunteers pass through our doors and I am thankful everyday for all of them. Truly a great mixture of people and personalities…so for those of you I have met here at the village, thank you again for your help, but also for what you have brought into my life as well as the children’s!
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