Day 9 - Christmas in June

Everyone is slow moving this morning after the flurry of activity on Saturday.  I spend the morning chatting with Lou and Pauline.  They have such a breadth of knowledge about African culture and politics - it's amazing.

Sylvia meets Alicia & Sue

 Victoria announces the arrival of Sylvia Faith, which was a pleasant surprise.  This 7 yr old girl is sponsored by our very good friends, Mary Lou & John Lummiss.  She is in boarding school some distance away, and we were prepared for a long journey, but her headmaster, Peter, brought her to us, along with Harriet, one of her teachers.

viewing photos of her sponsors

 Sylvia is a very shy child, but she did warm up over the course of our visit.  We present her with photos of her sponsors and gifts that they had sent.  She looks beautiful in her new dresses.

Dan greets Susan

 We are treated with welcoming songs and dances.  Dan, Nadine, Matt, Laura & Jackie are officially welcomed to the BKU family.  A traditional meal is served, including chickens raised at Bright Kids – it is truly delicious.

preparing for a busy afternoon

Sue poses with Sylvia and her new dress gifted by her Canadian sponsors

Sylvia shows off one of her new dresses

Jovan models my hat once again

Sandra and doll

Moses rocking to the beat

Matron with Don

Rebecca

Alicia, Laura & Jackie practicing macrame bracelets before teaching the BKU girls

clothing to be distributed

Laura gets braided

Jackie checks out a soccer jersey

Boyz on the wall

girls just wanna have fun

wonderful vocalists

Moses oh so cool

Janat strutting

Matt & Shira share a moment

Janat & Sarah

We have had donations of plenty of clothes and shoes from our friends and the local community, and we managed to pack most of those into our extra suitcases.  Today is the day the new arrivals (Dan & family) will be welcomed and the new clothes are to be distributed.

shoe fittings

Arnold eyes new crocs

Alicia & Dan

Margret sizes up a shirt

Sanyu poses

We present Angel with some clothes for the impending twins

Day 8b - Carnival

The drab wall surrounding the front lawn of the big house looks incredibly refreshed with a new coat of paint and the mural, which really comes to life with the added touches by the kids and staff.

remember the unpainted wall?

refreshments backed by the developing mural wall

Moses adds his inspiration

Lou poses with Sandra

Mayhem on the front porch & lawn.  Craft sales on the left.

Jeffrey and Matt produce balloon animals, swords and hats.  The kids can't get enough of it.

Dan adorned

If the sword were a little sharper, I could shave these locks

Jeffrey takes advantage of his height to protect work in progress

hard work, but someone needs to do it

Gloria minds one of the clinic visitors

Janat

Arnold gets a little spunkier day by day while Jovan takes care of Alicia's shades

Laura and Jaclyn set up a face painting salon.  Eventually they are joined by Emily, one of the Carlow University students.  The kids are enamoured almost as much by the hand mirrors as the painting.

Jaclyn does butterflies

living art

Emily tries her hand at painting

Margret, the BKU social worker, looks on

At one point, a birthday cake is presented to honour Matt's 19th.  Everyone enjoyed it, but I was holed up back in the clinic by that point.  I trust Dan got lots of photos.