Tomorrow is Christmas!

We are all sorted now - when we arrived at the orphanage today, we were very happy to see that not only the running shoes had arrived but also the jump suits for all kids!

jump suits and running shoes

So we started another couple of hours of packing 81 individual bags with the running shoes, the jump suit, paired with socks from Abu Dhabi and two pieces of underwear for each one. We are so excited to see the children's faces tomorrow when receiving the bags!

81 bags to pack

socks, tights, underwear, jump suits and runners

When finished, we went to town to do another shopping trip - white boards for the school rooms, stationary such as pencils, markers, school books and pencil sharpeners. On the way back we stopped at a supermarket and bought some more items - plastic jugs, buckets, toy cars for every child and balloons.

stationaries for the school

 a few toys and household items

the Tanzanian way to transport the white boards in the open trunk

Arriving back at the orphanage, we distributed the crayons, vitamins, coloring books, sweets, stickers and the glowing stars to Alice, deciding that we only do the stickers and the cars today. The room was bursting of new items which made us overly excited for the "big day" tomorrow!

nearly finished

our goodies from Abu Dhabi

stickers, glowing stars and crayons - for some excitement in between

While waiting for the children to finish lunch, we had a look at the veranda, which grew substantially over night. Now they only have to wait for the concrete to dry and on Monday the roof will be fixed above it!

nearly finished!

The teacher explained to the children that the "other volunteers" are waiting outside to give them some gifts - but only if they are quiet and behaved! All eyes went outside the window in eager excitement about what the "teachers" might have for them!

When entering, we distributed the cars, the glowing stars and the stickers and were a bit surprised that they all put their finger in a "psssst" position on their mouth. So cute - we remembered that they only get the gifts if they were quiet!

look at their fingers on the mouth!

It didn't take long and the excitement took over - the lauhgter, "vroomm vroomm" sounds from playing with the cars and these hugely opened eyes staring at us made us quite sentimental, seeing again what little it takes to make a difference in their lifes. 

some of them saw a toy car for the first time in their live

us distributing the goodies

so excited about the new things!

playing with the cars

The absolute highlight in this was the moment when the teacher announced that those stars actually glow in the dark - they cheered with their hands in the air, totally happy and surprised, what a moment!

the second the bubble bursted - announcement that the stars glow at night!

All in all, this day was actually our preparation for the huge day tomorrow (and our last) - we'll spoil them with a sumptuous lunch, the clothes/shoes bags, the caps, a brand new and finished veranda and a little farewell bonbon!

We can't wait!