Didi's World!

Today was the day all the kids where looking forward to, the day at the local amusement park- Didi's World!! We planned to meet at 9am at the park. The day before the children where informed of where we where going and told to wash their uniform, brush their hair, and be at school for 8. Then 3 buses picked them up and off to the city they where.

The nursery class arrived first. Their excitment was contagiouse. We first lined them up to go on a car ride, basically a bunch of cars on a track. They couldn't stop laughing. We then went to the 'monorail" which is like a little train ride thats elevated. As we got the first set of kids on the ride, the rest of us waited below. When it started, one girl Agnes just held her hands in her face and with such excitment said "oh mama!!" Oh oh ohhhhh." The kids do not even have electricity in their community, so you can imagine what an illuminated children's ride looks like to them. The rest of the buses came and soon enough everyone was there.

One little boy started vommiting, and they had a rest room/first aid so I put him to sleep in there. By the end of the day 10 kids had been in the first aid. They went in for sore tummies, and the nurse ended up diagnosing them with other things- 2 had malaria, and one with worms.

A favorite among the older kids was the "octopus" a ride for 12+. I went on it with one girl Susan and she could handle it a lot better than me! What a lot of the kids where looking forward to was swimming. First the boys went in, and they just loved it. They went down the waterslide and splashed around and where quite good swimmers. They boys will sometimes swim in rivers and lakes so they have more of a feel for the water. Then it was the girls turn! This was fun. We had two fish, Alice and Rebecca who just belly flopped in and practiced right away. The next girls came in slowly .Susan, jumped in after watching the first two but she could not swim so she ended up getting water in her nose which scared her. I took the next girls one by one(it was a shallow end so all could touch the bottom) They thought it was just hilariouse! I would get them on their bellies and then tell them to kick. Darphine just wrapped her arms and legs around me so tight and refused to let go. They all loved the water! None where enthusiastic to go down the water slide except Alice. The rest just watched her in amazement.

After we all got changed we prepared lunch. Posho, beans and fish! They ate it up quickly excited to get back to the rides. They had a dance floor so we decided to go in there. You should see those kids dance! They looovveedd it and the music. We had 3 little boys who somehow got up on the dj's table and started to just dance as if there was no tommorow. Soon a bunch of kids where up there and everytime I took some down more climbed up.

The day turned out to be amazing. It was good to see the kids enjoying themselves and being just kids. They are so thankfull to everyone who donated to make this day happen. A big hug to all of you!!!