Fun Days

Kampala:

COH plans a “Fun Day” at the end of every school term for the kids in Kampala. Oftentimes, the day consists of games, food, competitions, celebration, prizes, and sometimes crafts. But once and a while COH will do something different like performing a talent show or taking the kids somewhere special in town like a swimming pool. For Megan and me, the Fun Day in August was our first opportunity to plan and participate. We divided the kids into four teams (each with a different color and a mentor-leader) and had various competitions throughout the day. The teams won points for each game or competition depending on how well their individual team members performed. There was soccer, three-legged races, wheelbarrow races, the balloon toss, relay races and more. Although the day was not without a few small hitches, most of the kids had a great time. (Some of the kids got too caught up in the “competition” aspect and forgot about the “fun” part.) The yellow team was our winner. Here are some photos from the Kampala Fun Day:

Gulu:

In Gulu, they lack both the resources and the knowledge for planning Fun Days. Although the mentors are quite dedicated, they themselves are refuges who live in the camp and have not had much experience or exposure to the kinds of games or activities used for a Fun Day. Consequently, there has only been one Fun Day in Gulu since the site opened. (In contrast, the Kampala site has three Fun Days per year.) For that reason, Megan and I especially wanted to plan and execute a Fun Day for the kids in Gulu. After talking with the mentors and site manager, we came up with a plan for a similar program as what we had done for the fun day in Kampala. The challenge was the lack of “experienced” people to help oversee all the games and crafts with different groups of kids. Megan and I were running around constantly at first, but the mentors caught on quickly learning how to do the games and the crafts. The fun day ended up being fantastic and everyone had a good time! The day consisted of a craft time, a game time, a food time, and a group time. For the craft, we purchased a number of calabashes, which are basically dried and hollowed-out gourds which people use as containers.

The kids were supplied with paint, glitter, glue, seeds, and foam shapes, and then given the freedom to decorate their calabash however they wished. I was blown away at the level of creativity and uniqueness that the children exhibited. We thought for sure that the kids would copy each other (or the example calabashes we had made), but each calabash was unique in its decoration. One kid even made a snow man! (I have no idea how he even knew what a snow man looked like.)

For games, we had the water balloon toss, the three-legged race, an egg-spoon relay, and a leap frog relay. Most of the kids had never played these games before… and they loved it! The balloon toss was especially a big hit since many of the kids knew what balloons were, but had never used water balloons.

It was so funny to see their surprised and smiling expressions when the balloons broke! Also, we had many curious spectators from the camp who come out to watch the crazy activities that were taking place. I think they were just as entertained with watching as the kids were with participating. We also played a wild game of soccer in which the kids had to do funny things like the crabwalk while they played. It was quite a comical site.

One of the highlights of the whole day was the fact that every kid got to pick a “prize” from our special prize box. (Thanks to my parents for sending little toys! They worked out wonderfully as prizes!) The day started at 10 in the morning and did not end until dark that evening! These kids have been living in a refugee camp for the past 5 or 6 years, some for their whole short lives. What a blessing to see them smile and enjoy themselves despite being in a place renown for suffering and hardship.