Happy Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish all my readers and supporters a very happy and blessed Christmas!

Goodbye Kenya... for now!

Well, I fly home tonight! These two and a half months have gone so quickly! I'm not sure I'm fully prepared for the shock of England's cold weather, but I am very much looking forward to seeing Jon, my family and friends. Today I've just been packing and pottering, it's weird waiting around all day really, keep feeling I'm going to be late. My taxi is coming in a bit over an hour so I thought I'd write a quick post to pass the time and stop myself feeling too nervous!

I went for a walk earlier, to get a bit of exercise before the flight. It was around 5, the evening light was lovely. Here's a couple of photos I took:

The Ngong Hills are in the background

The entrance to Dee and Peter's compound

I feel so privileged to have had this time here in such a beautiful place, and I am looking forward to spending more months here after Christmas. I thank God for bringing me here and for his protection and provision in so many ways.

England here I come!

The Christmas Party: Food and Father Christmas!

Once all the performances and the graduation ceremony were over, it was time to get ready for the big event... the food! It was clear the children were looking forward to it - earlier on I'd been carrying in a box of books and several of them had eyed it up and begun to chant "Chips! Chips!", and also when Lucy had asked them what they were going to do today one of them answered "Food!"

The children went to watch a short video while we got out tables and chairs on the veranda and started dishing up the food. It all happened amazingly quickly, everyone pitched in and got the job done! Soon the children were sitting down, gobbling up sausages and chips and guzzling soda. In fact they were finished so quickly that I didn't even get any photos - but here they are eating their ice cream which followed. For some this was their first taste of ice cream and there were a few funny reactions - they were very surprised by how cold it was!

Love the one blowing on it!

It got the thumbs-up from James!

After a short playtime whilst we did the reverse furniture removals, the children were gathered on the veranda, and Father Christmas appeared! The children thought it was very funny that Benson was dressed up, including a white beard, and they were extremely excited to get a present. They all waited until they were told to open it too - so well-behaved!

One, two, three... OPEN!!!

Here is a little video I made of the children playing with their cars and skipping ropes. It's not the most professional of videos but it's the first time I've edited together a few clips! In case you wonder, the whistling sound is the lollipop sticks!

Next the parents arrived to collect their children and their food parcels...

... and to listen to Benson explain the new fee-paying places and other things in the newsletter.

After this the children and parents went home, pausing only to get a balloon on the way out! All in all I think a very good day was had by everyone!

The Christmas Party: Performance and Graduation!

The day dawned, and we were so happy that it was sunny after we'd had fairly torrential rain earlier that week - thank you God! As the children arrived they got dressed up in their shukas (shawls/blankets) that they'd brought in, and their crowns. They had their faces painted by the teachers too - they looked great!

The children then had some time to play before the visitors arrived.

They had their tea with biscuits for a special treat, and there was a lot of milling around, playing with the visitors and posing for photographs...

Finally we began the Christmas performance! The children welcomed the visitors with their special song, which goes:

Every visitor becomes a blessing,

Welcome to our school!

Leah opened in prayer and there was an introduction to the school for those who hadn't visited before. Some children from the top class did a memory verse with puppets, and my choir sang two songs - you can see them here and here. I was very proud of them!

Then came the drama - some children dressed up and acted out the different characters from the Christmas story:

The cowshed and animals; baby Jesus

Star, shepherds, kings

Baby Jesus looking rather bored!

After that was the graduation - here are the children dressed in their flag-gowns and special hats!

They each came parading up one at a time, just as if they were on a catwalk, it was so funny! I got a few video clips of them which I will try and work out how to put together at some point. When each child came up they got a certificate which I'd made as well as an exercise book and pencil - they were really pleased!

More on the last part of the party tomorrow...

The Christmas Party: Preparations!

This week has mainly been about getting ready for the Christmas Party, and also trying to get lots of admin done in time for the end of term. I spent quite a while printing my brochures out and also writing a newsletter for parents (which was read/explained to them on the party day). Thanks to donations from a few people I was able to buy not only balloons, biscuits, paper for decorations etc but also a present for each child. The girls got a skipping rope and the boys got a toy car, and there was a lollipop in each parcel too! The parents are given a food package containing essentials such as flour, tea, sugar etc but I felt it would be really nice for the children to have something to open too. Luckily Andrea, a friend of a couple from homegroup, has recently arrived in Kenya wanting to do some volunteering and has been coming to Mahali with me since Wednesday, so she gave me a hand with all the wrapping. What with over 60 presents for children plus presents for the staff too it was quite a big job!

Here are some pictures of us wrapping the presents - not the best quality due to the need for flash, sorry.

Andrea busy wrapping

Me with a cheesy grin!

Skipping ropes - only 90 bob each!

Toy cars - they were the ones you pull back and let go!

Pile of presents for boys...

... and pile for girls!

The other fun part of the preparation was the children decorating their paper crowns using glitter - somehow several of them seemed to end up with more glitter on their faces than on the crowns!

More about the party tomorrow...