Christmas Party

We had a huge Christmas Eve party for the community around the school. The spirit of Christmas and community was very much alive for me and everyone that attended.

Possibly the most fun was the planning and anticipation for the kids the entire week leading up to the party. The teachers taught the kids Christmas Carols, which they are passionate about, and everyone took on a piece of the planning to make it a very organic, spontaneous festivity. It was very much a community organized event and everyone seemed to have a great time.

The afternoon was packed with activities;
3:00 - 3:30 Story of Christmas traditions, in Khmer.
3:30 – 4:30 Traditional dance, games and singing.
4:30 – 5:00 Santa came!
5:00 – 6:00 Dinner
6:00 – 7:00 Dance performance by the students hip-hop/synchronized dance troop, break dancing and traditional dancing.

We supplied 20 grilled chickens, the neighbor made 15 kilos of rice we bought, and students’ moms made vegetables and side dishes. We had to eat in shifts since there were 3 times as many people than could fit into the school. It was chaos and everyone just rolled with it.

The dancing, singing, and most of the activities took place in an area close to the school where they practice dancing. The kids all worked the day before making decorations for the party, and made the school and dance area look great. My friends Dennis, Luisa, Luisa’s mom Diane, Cheryl, and Phana (the teacher) bought and wrapped 110 beautiful gift packages for every student. Pens, pencils, highlighters, erasers, snacks and candy, wrapped in tissue paper with ribbons. Kids in the new ‘Leadership Training’ and ‘Women’s Group’ got a nice organizer notebook. Dennis dressed up as Santa Clause and the 90 students and an extra 15 small kids from the neighborhood lined up to get their gift from Santa (it got crazy at one point when the small kids started to worry they were going to miss out and stormed Santa). It was a big effort and everyone seemed to enjoy the gift of giving.

There were many great moments. The 2 sisters in the picture with Phana, Sokley and Sreyron, while their family is extremely poor trash pickers and beggars, they got Phana a gift. The dentist we use and his family came and were our first Khmer donors. All the dancing and activities were a big production and involved some expenses, as well as a lot of mess to clean up. No one asked for any money; we just provided chicken and rice.

Dinner was a little crazy when 100 kids crowded the food table, but the women from the community handled it great and everyone got plenty to eat, including a healthy portion of meat.

It was all so unexpected. I thought we would do a little something, and it turned into a very special party. The teachers, students, the community and my friends have been so great and made it all so easy.

Some pictures are from the Lice Day we had the other day. There was a major infestation in the students, and you could see the lice swimming in the puddles after rinsing the kids. The kids all seemed to have a lot of fun, and were appreciative that they were getting treated. Sokley had so many we shampoo'd her twice, and she made a mohawk.