Christmas has come and gone in Kenya. Even though December 25th hasn’t yet reached us, as far as Christmas in EAC Kenya has concerned, we have finished.
We had a good run of it. Four Christmas parties for our kids. We were privileged to be able to hold Christmas programs at the juvenile home, the street boys home, a primary school in Kibera, and a children’s home in the village a few hours from Nairobi. Through donations by friends and family members, we have been able to buy shoes for all 104 juvenile kids and provide lunch for the kids at the street boys home, children’s home and primary school (i.e. feeding over 250 people during the course of 7 days). We were able to buy candy and beads for all the kids to do beadwork (which they were very excited about). We were also able to buy complete new outfits for all the 62 boys at the street kids home. Each kid could take off their grubby, torn, and hugely oversized or undersized clothes and put on a new pair of pants or shorts, a new shirt, and two new pairs of underwear, transforming them to finally look like kids again.
We also had enough leftover money to be able to provide means for a few of our juvenile home kids to go home for Christmas. Some of the boys who have been released already were still at the home because they didn’t have transport to go home. By providing them transport, they were able to go home and finally be reunited with their families again.
Overall, it was a fantastic month. The kids all got to learn what Christmas is really about and why Jesus came. They got to participate in our Christmas skits as sheep and angels and were all very happy to see the costumes. We had lots of Christmas games, songs, and crafts together as well.
My favorite part of the Christmas program by far was seeing how happy the streetboys were after lunch each day and seeing how nice they looked in their new clothes. They strutted around showing off their new clothes and feeling very good about themselves. Also, during our program with those kids, they were better behaved than we have ever seen them before. Since they were going to be fed and none wanted to be punished and miss food, they all paid attention, listened to directions, participated and were easier to work with than I’ve ever seen before.
We concluded our Christmas programs with a party for our staff and volunteers at the Carnivore (a fancy restaurant in Nairobi). Since Christmas time also happens to fall about the same time as our first anniversary as an organization, it worked out very well to have a joint celebration and really get dressed up and spiffy looking. Our whole team came and we spent an evening rejoicing in how far we’ve come and how far God has brought us. We remembered our first team meeting back when Martin was still shy and quiet and we were still trying to brainstorm the area we would target projects in and figuring out any connections to projects that we could come up with. We have come a long way and I can’t think of a better way to end the year than that. Now we all have a couple of weeks off to spend time with our friends and family and rest to prepare for our next year.
Currently, Athena and I are in Uganda spending some time with EAC Uganda, but those are stories for another time!
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