The Grand Christmas Party By Jared Langdon

            On December the 22^nd, we had a very fun Christmas Party.  It was a get together for all of our employees so that they could get to meet each other.  Everyone attended except for the two night watchmen, who were late for certain reasons.  We started out with a small banquet for the whole gathering, which totaled 20 people, including us.  We had 4 different kinds of cookies, as well as peanuts, meatballs, samoosas (small triangular corn tortillas with hamburger in them), and Fanta Orange pop for drinks. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and when everything was said and done, there was absolutely nothing left!  They always say that American candies and cookies are too sweet (stuff like M&M’s, chocolate cookies, etc.), but everything was gone!  They were thoughtful, and packed some in their bags for their little ones at home. Here is one of the funny things that one lady did with her candy.  Mom had given her a candy cane, but failed to explain what to do with it.  For us Americans, it is obvious what you do with a candy cane (you dispatch it immediately).  Anyways, she thought it was a decoration, and hung it up in her house.  When she related this to everybody after she watched them eat their candy canes, everyone just about died with laughter!

            After the food, we gave out gift bags with stuff like rice, sugar, tea, milk powder, and custom calendars with the pictures of the babies they took care of on them.  Everyone was SO thankful, so they gave us some African style singing which included some “hi-yi-yi-yi”ing, dancing, and handshaking.  It was an impressive sight, watching about 10 African women dancing and swaying in time with the music. 

            Then the speeches started.  Our gardener joked around a little bit and said that “probably if it hadn’t been for the food,” he might not have come.  He then thanked us and stated that it was a joy to work for us because we demonstrated the love of God to them.  He said that even though we were having troubles with malaria, other sicknesses, and many things that would discourage some people enough to make them go home, we were sticking it out.  Many of the caretakers said many similar things.  One pointed out that even though they hadn’t been working for us very long; we were still kind enough to throw a party for them.  They then collected their things and left, except the ones who were on night duty that night.  The whole party lasted about 2 hours, from 3:00-5:00.  The whole thing was enjoyable, and everyone had fun.