Best Christmas Ever!

My older brother says every year, "this is the best Christmas ever!" He has made this statement for as long as I can remember, and it's always at my grandmothers house, after we have all eaten hor dourves and dinner, sang carols, read the Christmas story, and Santa has came and left. We are usually sitting by the fire and talking while the kids run around and the older ladies wash the dishes, my uncles and mom singing their rendition of "Tip-toe Through The Tulips." This year I was not able to participate in the warm family festivities, but it didn't bother me, living in a tropical location didn't make it feel like Christmas, I'm sure I would have been sad had there been lights and a snow on the ground to remind me of what I was missing. Thanksgiving was worse, where all the foreigners got together and imported a turkey, and people were shuffling through my kitchen all day to use one of the three ovens in the town to bake their pies.

As you may have read in a previous blog about a beach and my friend Charlie, there was a Christmas party planned for the orphanage kids on his beach. Sadly, that fell through, the mini bus drivers decided that they would rather make money on tourists visiting the islands for the famed raves, than bring the abandoned children to the beach for the day. Luckily, this meant we could take the party to them, with more than enough volunteers!! With the money from the sale of my bike, we were able to purchase KFC (a luxury for them as it is the only foreign food available) for each child, and a HUGE keg of Ice Cream, more than enough for each child and worker to have at least one cone. With other donations we were able to purchase many small gifts, each child had armfuls of balls, dolls, and little trinkets. The night before, a group of people set up shop at a friend’s house to wrap, and wrap and wrap and yes you guessed it, WRAP! A group of friends who have an impromptu band played Christmas background music and the kids were dancing and jumping and played a musical chairs type game where they all sat in a circle while many gifts were passed around. When the music stopped, whomever had the gift got to open and keep it. Inside was another wrapped gift to keep passing as well. This went on until each child had one gift, and then the chaos began!!! We had many games and activities planned but with Santa showing up, and more than a hundred kids eating copious amounts of sugar, nothing went as planned. The best part of having the Christmas party at the orphanage instead of the beach was that students from my school were able to participate. More than 20 students showed up to love on the kids, pass out gifts, and just hang out. And each student brought with them at least one gift or money to donate. It was great to see the spoiled rich kids from the school take time out of their night to give back to a portion of society that is stigmatized and seen as untouchable in their cultures eyes. It was not a school requirement and no one asked to have their sheet signed for their community outreach credits.