Despite the school being closed, it was still an eventful day for the team. Things got going early, with a 5:30 AM wake up. At 6 AM we started the annual mountain hike…a rite of passage for the children of the home now old enough to participate. Today their ages ranged from 10 to 17. The children had a blast on the hike, dodging the usual cast of animals along the way up, then enjoying the detour through the market on the way back. The view of the valley from the mountain top was spectacular, though a coveted shaded spot among a few trees at the top was already taken up by several women praying and chanting. We settled for the shade of a few bushes to sit and share a snack with the children before heading back down.

We were grateful for the early start, as it was blazing hot by the time we arrived back at the mission at 9 AM. The staff had prepared us a nice breakfast of oatmeal, which we quickly wolfed down.

The women on the team grabbed Karen and spent the rest of the morning sorting and organizing all of the donated Christmas gifts from Canada and helping Luc with his math lessons, while I fixed a few broken chairs and a wheelbarrow.

We also had an opportunity to sort through the donated clothes for the kids to decide what will fit whom in the children’s home and what can be donated to the community. Yvette did an awesome fashion show of one particular item of clothing that we couldn’t quite figure out how to wear. She is a natural for the runway!

The afternoon was spent dragging out the Christmas tree and exterior lights, then figuring out which lights were working and where they were supposed to be hung. We got about half of the lights strung up before dark. The children were very excited and enjoyed “helping” us any way they could. The big hit was turning on a new lazer light effect on the side of the main house, with their screams of delight ringing out and lots of dancing through the lights.

Rob