Ice Ice Baby...

The month of June is a special one in Mozambique, because it is the month that celebrates Children! This special month is kicked off each year on June 1^st with Children’s Day… second only to Christmas!

We were told by Social Services to be prepared with a description of what we were doing should they stop by. So our staff spent the weeks leading up to Children’s Day preparing games and other creative activities. We also planned a special menu and put together gifts of underwear, toys and a few other fun things. In short, we spent countless hours getting ready to celebrate our children!

Our boys also spent the weeks leading up practicing a dance that they were going to perform in a larger orphanage in town. Those who weren’t dancing would participate in a parade through our city.

When Children’s Day arrived it was full of excitement. The kids were off and the Center was quiet with remaining staff running around decorating, preparing food and games for a day of fun. (Also, did I mention that Nunu and I leave in 3 days, so in addition to making sure all is well with the day, I’m trying to pack all of our belongings away in buckets!)

Video of the very tail end... but still cute! 

Boys dancing

 After the dance, we got a call from Social Services saying they wanted to take some of our children out to lunch (a very big deal!). Upon their arrival they took all of the children who had shown up to celebrate with us (the kids who live with us, the kids who we help with school and the kids who live on our street)! We were left with Children’s Day plans and decorations and no children!! After one month of preparation!!!!!!

I just stood in the yard blinking and quickly shaking my head… did that really just happen?!

By the time we were ready to serve lunch, a few small children had shown up and we sent them out to gather their friends. In the end we had a table full of children (very small children)! Some of whom have probably never eaten at a table, nor have they ever had so much chicken or pop to themselves. After lunch our staff played games with the children who came. It wasn’t exactly the day we had planned, but the important thing is that we celebrated these children!

Kiddos praying before lunch.

One of our new staff, Justino, teaching the kids a game!

The group that went out to lunch with Social Services returned a few hours later with smiles plastered on their faces! I felt silly asking if they had fun, as it was beyond obvious. It was a special day!

But the day wasn’t over yet…

A few days earlier I had filled up two 18 quart Rubbermaid storage boxes with water. About a inch from the bottom of each box, I had frozen a spoon.

Why? For a game! After things settled a bit, we gathered up all of the kids again and explained the goal of the game was to melt the ice and the find the spoon! At first the kids were looking at me like I was crazy and a few were even acting like I was making them clean the toilets. But just as the ice melted, so did their hesitation.

Abracos and Marcia trying to melt the ice. 

Moda and Calmo

Genial and Salena

Neighbor lady (holding Nicky) wondering what we are up to.

Some little kids checking things out with Maria and Timido.

Cara always looking for hugs!

Arms were flying, feet went rubbing, a few kids kept trying to rub dirt on the large cubes. I kept trying to convince the kids to rub their stomaches on the cube, but no takers. That is until Teclado jumped on and began spinning in circles on top of the block.

Video of the ice fun. At 22 seconds watch Telcado jump on. You can hear me yelling at him to 

lift up his shirt. Eventually he yells back, "FRIO!" meaning "It's COLD!"

Really quick I need to add in that you all must be thinking… your in Africa, isn’t this thing melting on it’s own. Well yes, that is what I thought too and that is why the cubes are so big. But it’s now dusk and not that warm at all (maybe 75 or so) and so these things were just barely melting… of course it didn’t help that some of the kids would only use a few finger tips as they thought it was too cold!!

As many things in Moz, the game didn’t end quite as planned. Teclado picked up the block to rub it on his belly and he dropped it and it broke in half! So that team was disqualified and the other team won!

Sometimes I do things and I can just tell the kids think I’m nutso! This was definitely one of them, but you should have seen how much they opened up and by the end our fence was lined with people watching. I even put out a smaller block for the Itty-BIttys to use and for the passer byers to touch.

Have no fear folks, I will do this again with the kids. I’ll just try to wait for a hotter sunnier day!