"Father Christmas!!!.....Father Christmas!!!"

This past week was filled with amazing Christmas parties in each community hosted by the Extreme Response team! Masiphumelele had theirs on Wednesday and it was so much fun! Because we have so many preschoolers and club kids (which are school age) we had to host 2 parties spread out throughout the day. Our first party for the pre-schoolers started at 10am! All of the creches (preschools) and day cares brought their little kiddies down for the festivities! We had two inflatable jumping castles set up outside and let's just say that's when the madness began!! LOL The ER team was great! They provided all of the resources for the parties and all of the kids were able to get a hotdog, 2 pieces of fruit and a present they could open at home; which included a hygiene pack (soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc.), a bag of sweets, and a juice box. They also got their picture taken from a polaroid camera and that was sent home with them as well!....oh and I almost forgot an ice cream cone!!! So after a few hours packed with jumping in inflatables, singing and dancing, face painting and playing with clowns (which by the way...Im still afraid of LOL), these kids were sent home with a huge smile on their faces and their arms full of goodies! Oh and I forgot to mention Kenny another American volunteer, volunteered himself to be Father Christmas for the party and has been growing his beard out for a couple of months for it. He was a trooper to say the least...considering its scorching hot here and he was in a Santa suit! But the kids loved it and screamed "Father Christmas....Father Christmas" so loud for him to come out!

Probably my favorite part of the day was around noon when we all walked outside to see the gate flooded with older kids anxiously awaiting for their party to start...the crazy thing was though that it didn't start until 3!! And they knew that! They just wanted to make sure they were first in line for the fun! They waited there for hours!!

The day was exhausting to say the least but such a blessing and so incredibly fun! Just to see the looks on the kids faces when they got to receive a present and ice cream! And to play with clowns and see magic tricks! They were so excited they could hardly sit still! Masi is always described as being the most chaotic and out of control...but as many of you know I thrive on chaos and love craziness...so it was so much fun to just sit back at the end of the day and despite all the miscommunication and children running wild and food all over the place, and to know that the Lord used us to bless their hearts and love them unconditionally!

Days like that are what make my time here priceless!