This last week we held our final project festival at Hoa Binh, and it was amazing and so successful!! Beforehand we were worried about if we had enough supplies, volunteers, electricity, tables, and many other things but by 9 everything had fallen into place. We were able to recruit many of the other volunteers who work at Thanh Xuan to help out and participate for a majority of the festival and many UCHANU-ers turned out and were a great help! We couldn't have done it without their presence. And many of the doctors, helpers, and teachers also came out to hang out with the kids.
Our kids themselves were having a fantastic time! We must have had about 45 people outside at the max and everyone was eating, playing sports and games, drawing, and running around screaming. One students even said that he couldn't remember when he had such a good time, and was walking around talking to people and singing. If felt so wonderful to have everyone out of the building and playing around with each other. Even the people who entertained themselves by popping all the balloons or throwing the beanbags at the targets with all their strength were smiling and screaming and chasing around, all for fun of course.
I was really pleased about the success of the mask and wing-making, but we ended using up all the pre-made pieces and some kids wore them the whole festival and even afterward during lunch. I think Phuong was another saving grace when she brought with her a DVD of exercises & musical accompaniment, which attracted a large group in front of the entertainment table the entire festival. It was a well-known video and/or songs so it was really popular. Games and sports, unsurprisingly, was very successful. The beanbag toss was the most successful but there were still many people doing the blowing game and a few were even playing around with the tangrams. It was also really cute haw many of the kids didn't even need the prizes at the end, and a few even played around with some of their goodies until the end when they tried to give them back. The sports area looked reminiscent of most of our after-school days with kids kicking the balls around but this time with some badminton rackets and jump ropes. Peter also got some chalk and drew hopscotch and a jump line which were being used the whole time. I only wish we had brought chalk earlier on in the year. And even though we raised everyone's blood sugar at least 20 points with all the snacks and soda, no incidents happened. These kids are the best at sharing and not fighting with each other over snacks and prizes, more so than any I've met before, and there were 0 accidents. A totally successful event.
I think it was rather impressive how organized we looked. We did not need to ask for much, just a place to plug in our electrical cord and then a broom afterward. We set up on-time and were able to clean-up in about 15 minuets, thanks to our volunteers. Nothing got out-of-hand or out-of-control. But the best part really was seeing how happy everyone was all at the same time. Many of the family members who stay at the village came out and they looked thoroughly happy as well at beautiful chaos that was happening outside. I'm really, very much going to miss this place and it was nice to have a little celebration while we were there.
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