SCHOOLS OUT for..The Holy Days

Well, it's either Holiday or Holy Days..we've never really gotten a straight answer. Easter Sunday aside, we haven't been able to pinpoint anything Holy about the break thus far. Either way, the kids are ours for the next 5 weeks! And today is our first day!

Every Monday - Thursday afternoon the kids will be able to come by the Youth Center for games, puzzles, reading, art & my personal favorite: hula hooping (more for my personal enjoyment to be honest...)! We are really hoping to have a good turnout of kids of all ages from different schools around Ndejje. Each afternoon, too, we will have a couple hours for football training which will surely be popular.

One of my goals for the next 5 weeks is to organize a few "Girls Nights" where girls come, possibly with their mothers if it seems there is interest, for some girly type activities: bracelet making, cutex-doing (nail polish!), them "braiding" my hair - a.k.a. twisting it into impossible knots...You know, the types of things young girls like to do. Ultimately (hopefully!) these nights would allow the girls to build their confidence in us and lead to bigger talks about issues in their life with which they struggle. When I set out last year, this was one of my original goals and it seems that the time is finally right to test this kind of event. The girls here, much more so than the boys, are stuck in and around the house doing cooking, cleaning and taking care of younger siblings. I would love to give them even just an afternoon break from their long list of responsibilities. I have a feeling, too, that quite a few mothers would like to come, and not to mention they too deserve a break! Hopefully more to come on this!

In other exciting news - we will be getting a new volunteer this week!! Her name is Alison & she's originally from San Fran but has been traveling around on a research fellowship learning about the impact soccer has on youth development-how fitting! Alison has spent the better part of this past year in Bosnia, Jordan and around Namibia and will certainly be a great & welcome addition to our team! She also graduated college the same year as me so we'll even out the ages here!

And last but not least, YES I'm beginning to FREAK that we only have 7 weeks left...Hard to believe, right? Indeed I'm getting excited about returning home, but leaving these kids...well that's for another blog!