Day 31 - 26 impromptu Christmas carols

Today began in a very laid back fashion. Alex had to get started on his competition standard gingerbread house and I needed to work on a powerpoint to show the girls at the village. So we hung around home for the morning and got on with each of our tasks before heading out to visit the girls.

Yesterday's sunset from the mountain

Alex was making great progress with his gingerbread house, so much so that he told us to leave us behind and tell the girls that he was unable to visit them today because he was "winning". So, Lisa, Jonno and I headed out to the village without Big Al but we decided to get some lunch first from the string pie shop. The first time we got pies from there Jonno found a very chewy piece of meat, which turned out to be string, hence the name "The string pie shop". Jonno raced in to get our pies and I was approached by our mate "the cursing guy". He has been awarded this name after he cursed us last time we encountered him all because we didn't want to buy any of his trinkets. Today he was on top of his game and accused me of not liking black people because I stopped talking to him. I quickly pointed to Lisa who is black and was in the front seat next to me, which was my trump card that won me our little conversation.

Rhoda with a new cooking pot

After we got lunch and sadly departed our friend "the cursing guy" we ventured out to Willow Park. I was with a group going with photos while Jonno showed his tea party skills with a group of younger girls. I never knew tea parties could be dangerous but apparently they are. Jonno heard a scream and Memory had sliced her pointer finger very cleanly with a piece of tin. Dr Lee cleaned up the wound and referred Memory onto Dr Debbie who patched up the wound, gave a motherly hug and sent Memory on her way.

Alex, the gingerbread house expert

Tonight Jonno, Alex and I were invited to play in a family and friends Christmas party hosted by a friend of Debs. We had no idea of what was going on, which is completely normal around here. We showed up at 6:30pm (the start of the party) for a 6:00pm practise and were met with 26 Christmas carols that were to be played all in a couple of hours with no practise...good luck!  Alex and I stumbled our way through the incredibly long list of Christmas songs and Jonno somehow managed to sweet talk his way into only playing a couple of songs and happily stood and watched Alex and I pretend to play along for the majority of the night. It was a good night though and the food was excellent. As we were eating some super delicious ribs Alex asked us, "Do you guys have bones in your ribs?" Understandably we were all a little confused by the question assuming that bones being in ribs would be common knowledge but it appears we were wrong!

'Playing' at the Christmas Party

We have already shared with you how we have been able to bless the girls and staff at SJCV so far with the generous donations many of you have given and we are so lucky to be able to be entrusted with that money to invest it where we feel it is needed most. This Christmas, with your generosity we have been able to bless 15 staff members from the Sandra Jones Children's Village with a Christmas bonus. These people don't just give the usual 9am-5pm in this job. From what we have seen so far on our trip, they give their all to these kids asking for very little in return.

Tomorrow we are having our SJCV Christmas Party, which we are all really excited about! It's going to be a really special day for everyone involved so make sure you check out the blog tomorrow to see what happens at the Christmas Party!

Thanks for your continued support and prayers. We really are blown away by the number of blog readers out there!!

Andy