Distribution #6 today was in the delightfully named town of Tipitapa.
Once again, our friends from the Nicaraguan metalworks company Indensica
provided great volunteer support for
our efforts making the distribution of 400 bedkits the smoothest to
date.
"
Sonria" is Spanish for "smile" - and there were many, many
of them today. Sometimes, we need to break the ice (a distinctly
Canadian term) with balloons or our hard-working hand puppets Octavio
the Otter and Tortuga the Turtle. Other times,
sonrias are brought on by Duncan's magic tricks or by Duncan and
Stuart's kazoo band. And today there were many smiles as our disc jockey
pounded out Latino Christmas songs - certainly more dance-worthy than
our sombre Canadian selections. (
Feliz
Navidad anyone?) But no smiles are bigger than those that we see
peeling across the children's faces when they receive their backpacks
and bedkits. These are smiles of joy, gratitude and, in some cases,
disbelief that such good fortune has landed on them.
One of the more interesting things we try to do at each
distribution is to interview parents of children receiving the bedkits
to see what is most useful and what they might like to see in future
distributions, as well as what the bedkits mean to them
and their families. One mother told us today that not only would her
daughter have the best sleep of her life tonight but that she herself
would sleep better too - now only having to share her bed with one child
instead of two. This is something we can all
really appreciate, having had the opportunity to be welcomed into
several homes of bedkit recipients over the past few days. An early
Feliz Navidad to 2,4000 Nicaraguan children from SCAW's generous bedkit donors.
Team Nicaragua
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