Runda Feeding 22nd/ April/12

   This Runda feeding started later than usual because the people who work at Runda have chnaged their usual startying time so we waited at Java until about 11:15. When we go there we did the usual; sorting out food and then giving out the trays to the elderly. But for the first time it was really disorganized and chaotic at the end.  Usually after the people got the food they woudl exit through the other end of the cabana and sometimes they would try to get in again so that they could try and get some more food. But  it never really got out of control because there was always one guard at the end of the cabana preventing teh kids from reentering. But for teh first time it was really out of control.
    It started of normally with us giving out the food to all the people who came by. for the first time there seemed to be more older people such as teenagers and people in their 20’s which is very unusual because usually I give the food to little children.

            Then all of a sudden when there was a little more food left to hand out one of the managers came and took the food away, which was very  unusual and then they told us to move away from the edges because there were A LOT of people reaching over, asking for some extra food and more items. The guards would constantly go up to the edge of the cabana and literally whip them and hit against the wall really hard to prevent them from entering. This was such a vulgar and chaotic scene which shocked me. It was very unusual and I was really disappointed with the way the day ended but I guess it was inevitable and it was bound to happen eventually but it was such a big shock and I hope it doesn’t happen again and that next time it will be more organized and controlled.

Shangalia 21st/ March/12

     On this trip to Shangalia we got the same kids who played Pictionary with us last time and we went back into the class room. At first we played Pictionary for about an hour and the kids were still pretty excited and happy about playing against each other. Then after a while they were getting a bit out of control so we decided to change the game. We decided to play hang man and each team had a hangman and whichever team guessed the wrong word their man would slowly be hung. Then the kids decided to do their own hang man and we all had to try and guess and we no longer had teams.

            Then we decided to think of some more games that were a bit more educational so we asked all the kids to go to the back of the class room. Then we asked each kid to spell  a word and each time they got it right they would  take one step forward and whoever  got to the front of the class room first because they had the least words spelt wrong would win. This was a really fun and educational game for the kids and I could tell that the kids were eager to play. Even the kids who had a hard time spelling they still looked eager to play and learn how to spell new words. I realized this was a good game to play for our  next trip to Shangalia it was something the kids were interested in and the kids having difficulty spelling could learn while having fun.

Runda Feeding 25th/ March /12

       We all met at Java as usual and we went to do the Runda Feeding program around 10:40.  We began separating the items and cutting bread and putting them into separate crates. This time there wasn’t that many sweets and cookies but there was a lot of bread, bananas, milk etc. Then we went to go give the trays of food to the old men and women and before we knew the kids were already pouring into the cabana where we were going to give out the food. The hardest part of this Runda feeding program is being unable to give more food to all these people who look so desperate for food and it is even worse when they ask for more food and you can’t give them more because if you  give more food to one person then there will be less for someone else.

            The majority of the time the kids and the people who come by the cabana to get food do not smile or look happy which makes me sad and I feel like I’m really not helping change or help this kids lives. But once in a while there is a child who looks in distress and I expect them to go by with no  smile or a  thank you  but they sunrise me with the most excitement in their eyes and a very sweet thank you which makes me smile and happy about the little I can do for them . During this time in Runda for the first time they brought out some cloths and all the kids that went by got a pair of cloths. This made me really happy because unlike food, cloths can last a really long time and you could see that this new item added to their bag which usually contains food made them really excited and the kids who went by with almost no emotion went out with a glint of happiness because of the new clothing they received. 

OVC Easter Egg Hunt

            On the 24^th of March Interact decided to have another little party for the kids from OVC and this time it was for Easter.  On Saturday we went into Mrs. Henderson’s class room where the donated cloths and books were and we sorted them out according to size and gender then around 10 the leaders of the groups went to go pick up the kids and where in charge of taking them to the various stations after about 40 minutes at each station. I was in charge of a specific station which was the Easter Egg Hunt. At that station I was partnered with Benazer and Wasim who brought the candy and the chips and we had to hide all of these treats around the jungle gym and the kids had to go hunting for them. After about 40 minutes the kids would go to another station such as gym to play games , the food court to eat , and the pool to swim.
            The first group of kids that came along were children about 8 years old or younger and some of them were really scared of climbing the jungle gym but after a while they got use to it and went looking for candy.( but they weren’t as excited to look for the candy as I expected them to be, but I guess the older kids would be). At one point we had an incident where one of the kids was with her mother but after a few minutes she had to leave to go to a different station and when this this little girl noticed she was gone she started to cry. After a while she stopped crying and got up to the slide and she didn’t want to either slide down the slide or get off the slide from the top which caused a little traffic jam at the top of the slide because other kids  were waiting to go down the slide. But this little girl started crying when we tried to coax her down.  So I had to go up to the slide and try to get her off myself because the whole thing was getting a bit annoying so I got behind her on the slide and I pushed her down the slide with me. At first on the way down she started whining but when she got down and off the slide she stopped whining and more or less forgot about the whole thing. Before we knew it they had to move onto the next station.

            The next groups that came along were all bigger kids and they were really excited to look for the candy which was really fun to see them get some Easter gifts along with some cloths and books from the previous stations.  But at times it was a little chaotic because we always had to put the candy around the jungle gym before the next group came but at times the next group would already show p before we could hide the candy and they would end up seeing where we placed the candy and they would find it really quickly. And at time the kids would go crazy fighting for the candy but other than that it was a really fun day and I could tell how happy they were to have come and do all these activities. By 1:00 the kids had gone through all the stations and it was time for them to go home and we walked them back to  the OVC. Even though this time I never got to see the kids go to all the stations I was able to set up a station and watch them have fun playing on the playground and looking for treats.