Since I’ve already put you off for a couple of days on getting you information and photos on the Christmas party last Saturday I decided to bring it to you in pieces…doesn’t everyone love the suspense!? We took so many pictures and I didn’t want to over stimulate you at one time with all the wonderful folks who helped and attended the party.
Preparations began actually a few months ago with fund raising from North Point Ministries in Midland, MI for gifts for all the kids. This process took us about 2 weeks to get all the outfits (shorts and shirt for everyone) and Rose helped us with this…
Rose is a mom to a sponsored secondary student...she is hoping to find a home (right now Rose lives with her sister's family) with the money she's earned from this project
Then several days before the party it was organized to have 70 chicken slaughtered and prepared for cooking…
Thanks Nzomo for prepping the chickens and delivering them Friday night!
chair rental…
Thanks Roy for delivering Saturday morning and thanks Richard (pictured) for organizing
ordering soda and setting up delivery for Saturday morning…
a parent from Nice View owns this store
and scheduling rides for the kids at Mercy to come to the party…
2 matatus for all the kids
That brings us to Friday when veggies were bought during the day, then Friday night food preparations began. Sorry I do not have any photos of them cooking ALL NIGHT LONG…but they did a fantastic job and yes they looked very tired Saturday morning but still had a smile on their faces to greet everyone!
Saturday morning Chuck and I arrived at the Academy around 8am and the movie room was set up…
Chuck and Lewis bring the movie equipment to the "movie room"
Desks were brought into the "movie room" for more seating
Wambua and Richard hang our movie "screen"
Thomas, our gate man at the Academy was our bouncer for the day (side note-he was helpful because we had heard several groups of kids who do not attend Nice View were planning on coming for the free food and one child actually came in a Nice View uniform and she isn’t a student here. This was a Nice View function and we wanted to make sure we had enough food for the sponsored/orphaned students) had his table set up just inside the gate…
Thanks Thomas for being our #1 bouncer!
During this time the kitchen was rocking…
everyone worked together like a well oiled machine. Thanks group!
and the cooking smells wafted all around the compound…
everyone was hungry by the time lunch was ready
The next party post will show more details from the kitchen…what an experience and a far cry from the food preparation areas in the US, but I have to say a big thank you again to Jane, Ann, Serah, Richard, Christopher and Wambua who worked tirelessly Friday night and all day Saturday chopping (food and firewood), cooking and serving all the watoto (kids) who came to the party. God provided EVERYTHING for the day to run smoothly…the people, funds, food and friends.