Christmas Fun with Orphans

Dec 29th, 2008

Everyone wanted to be the conductor and ring the bell

A quick guest-post by John. If you follow Julie’s blog, you no doubt saw me featured as Uncle Sam for the Embassy’s election night party. A total sucker, I was quickly convinced to dress up as Santa for the Ambassador’s annual orphan Christmas party. About 150 kids from a number of orphanages attended, and it was really touching to play a small part in helping give them a fun afternoon.

Race to the death

Everyone was remarkably well-behaved, except for about a dozen boys who Mark and I raced over the big slide…they damn near pulled my pants off trying to beat me! I heard something rip, but fortunately didn’t discover any serious wardrobe malfunction.

Just do that 15 more times!

Mark was a hit; the little girl at left was afraid of climbing up the slide, but he got the rowdy boys out of the way, put her on his shoulders, and carried her to the top so she could slide down – once one trip was completed he found himself busy for the next twenty minutes! After lunch there were four different piñatas (so more kids could get a crack); one of the highlights was the candy-gathering tactics.

Post-piñata mayhem!

Once the piñata burst, there was a HUGE dogpile; most kids opted for the “leap and sweep” method of diving into the pile, pulling candy under their body with a swoop of outstretched arms, and balling up like an armadillo until rescued by an adult with a bag in which to store your stash!

Santa delivers the goods under the watchful gaze of his elf, the Ambassador, and a nun

Next, each child got an age and gender-appropriate gift with their name on it. They were called out by orphanage and each got to visit Santa in his sleigh (complete with six wicker reindeer, who got plowed over by an over-excited little boy). All told, a great afternoon!