Tuesday saw us wrapping presents for the better part of the day. A church from Alberta donated more than 50 boxes of toys, clothes, books, puzzles, and jewellery for the kids; there was more than enough to go around for each of the 140 kids and grannies. However, someone had to wrap all those gifts, and that someone (or some people) included us. What a task that was. Being a gift bag man myself, this task would have taken me somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-6 weeks. Lucky for everyone, the job of wrapping went to Julia and Marie, who somehow managed to wrap a stuffed animal, two pairs of jeans, a toy car, and a bouncy ball with a single square of wrapping paper. They likened the task to wrapping a 24lb turkey. My job was making sure there were enough small pieces of Scotch tape. Once the wrapping was done, the mountain of presents was stashed in the storage room, and kept in hiding till the 13th.
On Wednesday we were back at Rescue for another full day. A scheduling mix-up saw us arrive a little later than usual, but we still managed to put in a full 8-hour day which included wrapping more gifts, baking up a storm with some of the girls (Julia), and trying to balance helping out with the festivities and playing soccer & volleyball with some of the boys.
Thursday was the big day!!! By 7:15am we were rolling along in the tuk-tuk heading off to Rescue. Once there, you could feel the excitement. We arrived to find the stage getting its finishing touches, the choir practicing Cambodian Christmas tunes, and the cooks busily preparing the evening’s feast. After 6 hours of "last-minute" preparations, everyone took their seats to watch the much-anticipated Christmas program. And what a program it was...for 3 hours we were entertained by dancers of all ages, a few special musical numbers, and a message from the pastor. The highlight of the night was the Cambodian Christmas play put on by the kids. Oh little town of Phnom Penh, how still we see thee lie...
A couple of program notables:
- The whole production in its entirety was in Khmer; neither of us understood a word. Yet another reason to learn to the language.
- Cambodian kids have an amazing attention span... we’re talking 6 year olds sitting still for 3 hours waiting patiently for their turn to dance. Coming from a place where one gets bored during commercial breaks, neither of us had ever seen anything like it; I'd say the two of us were the most fidgetty.
- After the program we all sat under a giant canvas canopy and ate a Christmas dinner of curry, bean sprouts, and fresh bread. As for dessert: rambutans and mini-oranges. Just a wee bit different than turkey and mashed potatoes, but we’ll take it...it was great!
The best part of the evening by far was the gift opening. For many of the kids it was the first time they had ever celebrated Christmas and received a gift. The looks on their faces were priceless. It is amazing how overjoyed they were just to receive some second-hand t-shirts and some old toys; many of them just burst into tears.
Merry Christmas, Rescue!
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