The First “No Way”

As planned on Boxing Day (Dec. 26th) approx 70 children and 9 volunteers from Mafuta joined us for a Christmas celebration. We took 3 vehicles to go pick them up and bring them to COZV. We traveled in true African style… every available nook and cranny packed to the gills. When we arrived back to COZV, we matched up our children with at least one Mafuta child to host. It was so adorable to watch our little ones walking around all day hand in hand.
We had intended on serving them goat and chicken on the braai (barbeque) but we got a rude awakening when we took the goat meat out of the cool room on Christmas Eve. It quickly filled the entire children’s home with one of the worst smells I think biologically possible. Seeing that I greatly despise smelly things, I barely escaped outside before being overcome by its putrid aroma. It had only been in there 3 days but something went very, very wrong. Flexibility again came in handy and we quickly shifted to plan B by serving just chicken with rice, veggies and loads of ice cream. I didn’t hear one complaint and many happily came up for seconds.
After the meal, the Mafuta children sang for us a Christmas song they had been preparing. A couple of weeks ago, the African teacher I work with at Mafuta asked me to write down the lyrics for The First Noel. I wrote out, “The first noel the angels did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay…” But as she went to copy it to the board, she corrected me and said that it was spelled no way. After a brief conversation, I didn’t have the heart to keep arguing her and honestly I couldn’t explain what noel meant anyway (I have since learned it is another word for Christmas). So, you can see the pic above if you want to learn the African version. The kids passionately sang, “The first no way the angels did say…..No way, No way, Noooo waaaayyy, No way, Born is the King of Israel.” I couldn’t help but crack up. Nevertheless, I was shamelessly proud of “my” kids.
We were able to give out some small gifts including baby dolls for the girls and beanie babies for the boys. I wish I had gotten a picture of their little girls faces light up. After having their fill of playing with our kids, horseback rides, soccer and with full bellies, we drove them home late in the afternoon. After which I pretty much collapsed.
Happy Boxing Day!