Christmas Gift Bags at the School!!!!!

Sometimes my time here is the the absolute best thing I have ever gotten to do in my life.  This week definitely was that way.  I have been mentioning the Christmas shoebox alternative proposed by a church in the USA.  Well this was the week we gave the bags to the kids.

The project started as an alternative to the Christmas shoeboxes filled in the USA and then distributed around the world.  Doug (head of B2BU Ministries, Inc) was concerned because the cost of shipping those boxes was rising every year and wanted to research an alternative.  He had me call in to discuss the potential of doing something specific with our school.  From the first phone call I was excited because this is something really fun in my opinion.  So Pastor Stephano and I went into town one day to start researching prices.  After a full day of looking around we had a pretty good plan to buy school bags and fill them up with gifts for the kids for around $10.50 per child.  By the end of my researching and hunting we actually got it down to $9 per person after we added the teachers and adult staff in.

Let me take a moment to say thank you to all the folks who contributed.  We did not go wide this year because we were testing it out, but I believe if we are to continue this as the school grows there will be chances for others to join us in supporting this project.

We had four different groupings of gifts.  The Baby Class got:  a coloring book, 2 exercise books, a box of 24 crayons, 4 pencils, a sharpener, three erasers, a ruler, 2 boxes with toothpaste and toothbrush in it, a handmade washcloth, a bar of soap, a toy car and the school bag plus candy we handed out because I was afraid it may melt in the bags.  The Pre-Unity and Standard I class got:  their own copy of the 100 Best Loved Bible Stories book we  use for religion class and morning devotions instead of the coloring book and crayons but everything else was the same.  Teachers got an English Dictionary, 2 exercise books, 4 pencils, sharpener, 3 erasers, 2 boxes of toothpaste and toothbrush together, a handmade washcloth, bar of soap and 2 of my favorite pens from the states (one black and one red).  Non-teaching staff got all that except the dictionary.  I also put together a package for Pastor Stephano that included washcloths for his family, English Dictionary (he asked for one while we were picking out gifts) and a copy of the Jesus movie in Kiswahili so he can show to his congregation and use as an outreach tool.  I also made extra washcloths for head teacher Fredy's family and crocheted a hat for his little boy, Marco.

I have been keeping everyone up to date on the washcloth progress and how long that took.  I also spent two Saturdays assembling the back packs (checking zippers, putting the straps together), writing the names of the student on the bottom of their bag, and forming a very tight assembly line inside my tiny house.  Fortunately only one bag had a broken zipper and I had allowed myself enough time to discover this and get into town to replace it.  

You buy the soap in long bars and cut them into six units.

The assembly line in my house for Pre-Unity.  I had to do each class separate since I have a tiny house.

Because they only had three colors, I put the name of each student on the bottom of the bag so they will know which one is theirs.

some assembly required.

We even had a blessing of the backpacks using a representative sample at Church when I preached last Sunday.

Finally the day to distribute came,  and the kids were excited but in typical Tanzania fashion they had to sit through a school meeting while their bags were sitting along one wall.  We also recognized the students who placed highest on the end of school tests, but I am going to save that until next week.

As you can see for many of the students, it was time for a new bag.

With all projects like this, it is difficult sometimes to get the kids to understand these gifts are a result of God's love for them expressed by others.  Typically I get way to much credit because I am the American on site.  But I think we got the basic idea through and even had the kids say a prayer of thanks to God for the bags.

Yes this was definitely a great week to be here!!!