Thanksgiving Craft No 2 + Games at the Club

Today we made our 2nd craft to prepare for Thanksgiving  - yes I know it was technically yesterday but we are celebrating it here on Monday night. So, today Court had prepared a scarecrow paper bag activity. Fun & simple and enjoyable to make so of course we all 4 made one :)

Meet Pirate Captain Gigi and Dizzy Daisy

After a fun afternoon of crafting and cups of tea Cristi and I went to the club to hang out with the youth from the foundation. Tonight they started a competition, which will run over the next few Fridays, so the ones who wanted to play were split into teams of 4 for games of volleyball and a contest involving a cereal box which you had to pick up with your teeth, without any part of your body (except your feet) touching the floor. Easy enough you might think but it ends up being cut down to the very bottom of the pack plus you have to stand up straight after getting it in your mouth. It was quite exciting to watch and each team miraculously managed to have someone who succeeded to the end! Cristi of course managed to do it quickly and without falling each time he tried (I guess all those hip hop lessons & hours climbing trees are worth something!)

Down to the last try - this team were the last to play and were determined to pick it up! 

Tomorrow I am cooking up a St. Andrews day meal for the teams lunch so I will leave you with a wee clip of my bendy monkey on the last turn of the box challenge.

DRESS AN ANGEL

Friends & family I have a request: Can anyone help donate a little bit of money? 9 children from the special needs school want to enter into a Christmas competition. They will be dressed as angels and perform a song and dance with candles. Their outfits cost £5 each to make (total cost would be £45) so it would be lovely if you could donate a costume to one or more of the kids. I can of course supply a photo after the costumes are made and let you know how they do in the competition. If you are interested please email me and I can let you know how to donate. Thanks     

UPDATE: Thank you to a bunch of my lovely friends who have donated all the money for these costumes :)

Thanksgiving Craft

Last week Court and I decided to start doing a "craft a week" so seeing as Thanksgiving is soon upon us we decided to go for a craft with a Thanksgiving theme.

Walk in the park to find some Autumnal bits and bobs to use in our craft.

A plate full of outdoor goodies - the cats were very excited by this and ended up eating most of the feathers Cristi had collected!

Looking for the right thing to glue

Court and Laz with some of his letters

Cristi found it hilarious when Flowers climbed into the bag

Bobo

Sometimes life holds little heart breaks. Today's came in the form of a telephone call.

One of the adults from the state run institution (a girl I am quite close with) phoned me in tears. "I can not take life here anymore" she declared "I have suffering. Life is so hard. Please adopt me too and let me come and live with you, in your family. I will help with all the cleaning. You know I will do anything you ask".

It made me want to cry.

This isn't the first time she has requested this. In fact I had to stop bringing Cristi to Summer camp one year because, due to jealousy, she was so mean to him. She understandably can't understand why if I love her I wont adopt her along with him. A girl trapped. She is 8 months older than me but the longing of a small child creeps from her soul. The wish for a mother. A dream of a better life a safer life. All I can say to her is "Sorry, I can't" and agree with her that life truly is unfair.

In honesty she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she ever did leave the place she knows as home. To adjust to another life after so many disturbed and dysfunctional years within the life she leads is often an impossible task for these people. She ran away a few weeks ago and slept on the streets of the city - she said she preferred it but inevitably came back.

I weep for her, for all of them. These little lonely souls with trampled, clipped and broken wings. I still have to remind her that biting me and hitting me isn't how we show affection to others. Sadly for many of them this has been, since a young age, the way in which those in a position of 'LOVE' have taught them.

It is easy to forget how privileged many of us are. The chances we get. The wants we get. And the undeniable human rights that everyone should receive that we get.  But, so many don't.

I know how lucky I am to come from a warm, loving and stable family. I am thankful everyday to my parents for loving me and teaching me the way and the things that they did. I am thankful that I grew up in a 'free' country. A country not rooted in communism and corruption. Themes which here, carry on affecting the people and culture still. How amazingly lucky I was to be born in a safe place to a safe family. LUCK! How different life could have been.

If I had not been afforded all that I have I too, as could any of us, have been like her. Lonely, desperate, searching for love, family and meaning. Rocking myself. Not developing to my full potential. Existing not living.

A reminder to take in more joy and wonder with every day and appreciate the chances I have been given simply because of where and to whom I was born.

Life is hard. It tests us. I feel like I give so very little to her yet, obviously it means so very much. She told me "I think of you and your mum, of your family and I am sorry. I AM SORRY because I want to be in your family too". Remembering that sometimes even the smallest steps of love can mean giant leaps for another isn't always easy. As Mother Teresa once said "It is not how much we give but how much love we put into the giving". I know that love isn't enough but it's a good place to start.

Just a little post about the Balla family. Due to a change in the dad's shepherding job they finally agreed to move into a property owned by the foundation. They have left their little mud hut for a 3 bedroom + living room + shower/bathroom accommodation. It is the first time, in my 7 years living here, that I have known them to live in a house with running water and a toilet. I am so excited for them! The children were all smiles as they showed me their new sleeping arrangements although the mum told me it was "a little strange to not all be sleeping in the same room", understandably seeing as one of their new rooms is almost the same size of their old house. It will be an adjustment for them to live there as they are living in the same building/complex as 2 other larger families (their only neighbours for the last 5 years have been the animals they have cared for on the land surrounding their house) but I hope they will grow to appreciate the chance they have been given and want to continue to stay there. The children certainly seem to be enjoying their time there so far. Life is still hard for them but I hope it will start to be more fortunate for them now :) Although their father has also joined them after an unfortunate mishap while shepherding. He was chopping wood at night and chopped off a good chunk of his thumb. Unfortunately the cheeky dog gobbled up the part that fell to the ground EEK!!

Ionut showed me his new big bed