Easter Party!

Wa lele po?

This is the beginning to the traditional Oshiwambo greeting, one we’ve all been practicing and are finally feeling comfortable enough to actually use. We sometimes mess up the series of phrases used in the greeting, and the people we are talking to think it’s incredibly funny, but they love that we try.

We spent last night making more peanut butter and jam sandwiches (none of us will be eating a PB&J sandwich again anytime soon) and putting candy in the 30 dozen Easter eggs we brought. Once the eggs were all filled, we still had a ton of candy left. So we filled another 100 plastic bags with candy, and still had a little to spare. We made sure to leave some for the staff members of Penduka to bring home to their families. The Easter party today was a huge success. We got to FHS around 9:00am and began preparing. First we made all of the children who were already there go and wait outside the gate. Two of the teachers from FHS brought them into the community to play games and pass the time until the start time at 10:00am. We got to work mixing up hot chocolate and getting the sandwiches ready to hand out. We hid all of the Easter eggs, a feat that surprisingly only took about 5 minutes. Then we put the extra candy out all around the school. Annie went to go get the kids and tell them we were ready. Everyone else stood at the gates, ready to attempt to control chaos.

We waited and waited, and the kids still hadn’t come back. We were beginning to worry when we heard the sound of singing. We looked up, and coming down the hill were the teachers, Annie, and about 200 children from the local communities. Once Annie had gotten to them, they all decided to walk around the community singing in celebration of the holiday, and to gather more children for the egg hunt. They got to the gate and we made the older kids stand back so the young ones could get through and start the hunt. The main goal was to get the little ones out of the way, so they wouldn’t be trampled. After we got the younger kids through the gate and into the school, we opened up the gate and all the rest of the kids came running through. It was a bit of a stampede, and more than one of us walked into the school carrying a crying child who missed out on getting an egg. But we had plenty of leftover candy, and once they got their hands on some chocolate, the tears stopped and they were all smiles.

We passed out the food and hot chocolate and all the kids sat down around the school to eat. The school is not that large, and we could barely fit all 200 kids into it. It was extremely funny to watch them drink the hot chocolate. They had never had it before, and they would start to drink with wary expressions. After the first taste, they gulped it down and were soon back, asking for more. Luckily, we had just enough food to go around, and everyone got a sandwich and plenty of hot chocolate. After a prayer and more candy handouts, the younger children left the school to walk home. Queen handed out some bags she had gotten from the Census to all the older kids, and we have never seen more faces light up with joy. She got the bags for free, and it’s amazing how simple things mean so much to these kids. They have so little, and even the smallest present is an occasion for celebration. The older kids had a lesson from the teachers about what Easter means, while the rest of us sat down for the first time in what felt like hours. But before long we were back on our feet, playing soccer with the kids and handing out yet more candy. But despite the incredible heat and trying to keep order with only one adult for every 20 kids, the day felt like it was over before it had a chance to begin. We cleaned up the school and sent the last few kids on their way home. We got back to Penduka and took a little time to clean ourselves up, before heading over to dinner at one of the teacher’s houses. We spent a lot of time there, learning more about the school and the new programs they had implemented since Annie and Mary’s last visit. After good food and good conversation, we now find ourselves back at Penduka, very much ready for bed.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and some of us are trying to devise a way to get to church in the morning. Lacking a car and a guide makes it slightly difficult. We are also preparing to say goodbye to Queen and Nicole. It seems like their time here passed much too quickly, and they are already anxiously awaiting a return trip next year. Annie, Mary, Linda, and I are working out our plans for the next two weeks. Having done so much of our work in the first two weeks means that we find ourselves with a lot of free time. We are hoping to take a trip for two or three days and go on a game drive. Since the school is closed for Easter break next week, we will probably take our trip in the next few days, so that we can be back in time to help out again at the school the following week. We will also spend much of that time preparing for next year and making plans based on what went well and what we can do better next time. We are so excited about what we have already accomplished, and are very much looking forward to making this work something that can be continued in the future.

Thanks for following us so far, more to come in the next few days. Happy Easter and Passover to everyone!!! If I knew how to say “goodbye” in Oshiwambo, I would. However, we’re not quite there yet. ;-) Good wishes from Africa.

~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, and Genny

P.S. - One a side note, it's daylight savings time tonight in Namibia. Since their "winter" is beginning, we will be setting our clocks BACK one hour. Yay for an unexpected extra hour of sleep!

(Easter party pictures will be up soon)