kids next door

On Fridays we are feeding some of the kids in the neighborhood. It went really well last week. There were 12 kids and most were under the age of 5. These kids are usually running around the neighborhood during the day. It is very common to see a 2 year old by himself playing. I think the older kids are suppose to be watching them. But... they are not too much older because if they were old enough to work they would be. Anyways so Sophia cooked a traditional dish and Cheick helped gather the kids up, wash their hands and then he cleaned up afterward.
The kids sat around one big bowl of food and they ate with their hands. Sophia and Cheick both said that it was alot of food for the kids BUT they ate all the rice and fish. Not sure how it ended up in the end but most of them kept the veggies to the side. Kids will be kids. It was funny because with the really little kids I couldn't tell if they were scared or happy to come in the wall. I am very different to them.
Okay so we had the kids come in the wall of our house. Cheick didn't want to send the food with them becuasae he was afraid they wouldn't get all of it. The older kids or the adults would take their share and we were not doing this for them. I really wanted to take a picture but chose to wait. Maybe next Friday.
When they were finished with their lunch they were so happy. They all had smiles on their faces and start to bless me with some sort of blessing chant. It was very cute.

So that was last week. Today I found strawberries and corn on the cobb. I fixed beef stew for dinner and I am now watching Spencer and Luke play on the wii. Luke is really good at bowling. Abby really likes to play but she gets frustrated and quits. Luke doesn't like it when she plays.
Luke is really starting to speak French. He is doing so good at school and we are sorta sad that he will be going to an English speaking school in Kigali. Anyways... C'est la vie!

Abbys birthday is soon. We are going to have a party for her and she is so excited. She wants an all girl party but that means not inviting some boys in her class that would be really sad so... boys are coming, she just doesn't know it yet.
We went to a birthday party for a boy in her class this past weekend and it was waaayy long. 3 hours! O-yeah so since when does the birthday child give gifts to their friends when they leave? The presents my kids got for coming to the party was better than the gift we brought to the birthday boy. Opps.. So we sang happy birthday in 3 different languages. French, English and .... I couldn't tell you. Maybe Arabic?? Who knows. There are so many different nationalities in their classes I can't keep up. Oyeah another thing about the parties here. People have hired clowns to give the party. Crazy! This past one had a table FULL of food and candy. The table looked like it came out of the charlie and the choclate factory movie. There was candy everywhere and luke felt sick on the way home. They also had lots of juice and cokes... man my kids had a blast.
So i am trying to think of something creative for abby's party. ofcourse i will be hosting it myself...

O-yeah luke went on another field trip last week. he had a great time and his mamma didn't go :)
today we went to our assisoiate pastors house for a bit. it was fun and we love spending time with them. Rita had a birthday so we took her some crab salad that she loves. I love her youngest daughter... she is soooo cute
okay i need to get the kids to bed via the bath. Abby spilt bubbles on her today. what a mess!

Okay thanks for listening and remember... life is too short... go eat some laffy taffy for me :)

April - ps the picture is of the kids near a cliff that is close to our house. Spencer and I actually ran/walk in this area M-F. It is really beautiful.