Christmas Party at Olives
Christmas Party at Olives
This is blog is a bit late, but it's about one of my
favorite times in Kenya so far so wanted to share with you all. Olives had to
close fairly early for Christmas in order to give Standard 8 the chance to take
their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Certificate exams without the
noise of 350 screaming children around. (Also this was being the first time
kids at Olives have sat for the KCPE. We are still awaiting their results but
it's an accomplishment nonetheless!) So in order to give the kids something fun
after months of exam prep and testing, we decided to throw an Olives Christmas
party the Saturday after the last day of school.
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| Volunteers and Students decorating Olives ready for The Party... |
My fellow volunteers and I
spend all of Friday shopping for prizes, making decorations and thinking up
games for the kids to play. It was refreshing to try to think of fun, silly
things for them to do instead of grammar exercises. I honestly wasn't too sure
how we would turn the bare cement buildings into a holiday spectacular, but
when we arrived at school early the next morning it was totally transformed.
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| Students having fun with the ballons |
The local teachers somehow managed to get a small tent to offer a little shade
in the normally stifling courtyard and with our balloons, bunting and streamers
it actually looked really festive!
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| Volunteer Maddie with students waiting for the party to start.... |
Mr. Joseph, who is by far the most eccentric teacher
at Olives, served as the MC for the day's activities. He also managed to
acquire some giant (albeit ancient) amps that he used to blast beats all day.
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| Students eagerly waiting for the games to beginning |
The kids, especially the younger boys, danced for HOURS. The Olives choir also
performed and were absolutely amazing (to be fair it featured mostly my kids so
I'm a little biased). We also played musical chairs and did soda chugging
contests.
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| Soda chugging contest... |
We capped the day off with massive amount of pilau, which is a Kenyan
dish of rice, beef and spices. The kids NEVER get this so they were ecstatic
and many found anything they could to bring it home to their siblings and
friends.
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| Students watching the choir sing.. |
This has to have been one of, if not my most favorite day at school so
far, but it was also the most tiring. I think I slept for about 13 hours
afterwards. Kenyans know how to party.
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