Christmas is a time for dreams. Children often dream of parties and gifts they will receive. Adults dream of family gatherings and a general sense of peace for the world. Contributing and helping to bring about another's dream is heartwarming.
Thus, we put the word out into the grapevine that we were organizing Christmas parties for the children and young adults of the PoChengTong Industrial Park. Many of our friends gave generously. We prepared "goodies" bags, which include toothpaste, a bar of soap, (it cost them a lot to buy them so they use the clothes-detergent soap instead) towel and some candies and a piece of pastry. One of our friends, Augustine Bong quipped, "You are giving toothpaste, but what about toothbrush?" "Not in our budget" I remarked and he contributed the toothbrushes.
One the Third Sunday of Advent, we went with Rose, Sineath, and Br. Matthew Tan, SJ to the nearby Orussey Market and shopped for our "goodies" bags. As we did not want to pollute and harm Mother Earth more than necessary, we decided to wrap all the goodies in the towel, so we packed 120 goodies bags and 50 'foodies' bags, with some help from our neighbour, Vincent and one of the staff who work here, Mei Xin. Hence, we involved as many people as we could in the spirit of Christmas.
On 21st Dec. we arrived at the centre at about 9am and the children were all waiting there eagerly. The children gave two dance performances and we organised the games. 50 children in groups of 5 or 10, played different games. Augustine was kind enough to play the role of Fr. Christmas and gave out the Christmas gifts (Stuff toys from Singapore and Brunei delivered by the Newn Family and Lillian).
Before the party begins
Young children doing their dance
Older children with their dance
Santa (Augustine Bong) giving out gifts
Changing to the to Market for the girls
The same girls with their gifts
The boys' turn at the game
The boys who played 'Changing Clothes' with their gifts
'Fill the bottle' for the older boys. The girls scoop the water for the boys to take the water in their mouths to fill up the bottle
Team players of 'fill the bottle'
Food is served
Enjoying the food
A group picture of the children
The joy of the child with her gift
For the adults' parties, on 23rd, we had a similar programme and it was so good to see the young adults letting their hair down, dancing and singing the morning away. Instead of playing musical chairs, we played musical "newspapers". Another simple game like walking/dancing in circles with the music blasting away and squatting down when the music stopped, had all of us laughing and giggling away (including me).
Playing 'Musical newspaper'
Role playing
Dancing away
Playing 'squat when the music stops'
Distributing the gifts
The group of youg adults
Lunch is served
As we shared with the "poor" down the road, what about "the poor" at our doorsteps? We decided to share the Christmas Joy with the staff, especially the housekeeping staff. We kept it simple and short as the staff had put in a hard day's work. To share the gifts that had been brought in, I kept aside some of the stuff toys for them (especially after they had seen us giving the toys a bath and hanging on the line!) To be impartial, we had a lucky draw for the gifts; it seemed everyone wanted a big gift. We played a couple of simple games too. It was good to see them screaming away as much as the young children did.
We served them local hamburgers and soft drinks (as we found that it was a treat for them considering their wages). Most of them have a family to feed. However when it was time to enjoy their snacks and other goodies, just after I had walked away for a jiffy, I came back to see the food gone. I thought "Wow! Fast eaters! They must really enjoy their food and must have gulped it down!" Sadly, I found out that they had "Ta Pao"; they had packed away their share of the food to take it back to share with their families. They also stripped away the Christmas decorations and balloons! On a brighter note, we did not have to do the cleaning up!
We were invited by the Sisters of the Missionary of Charity (Chom Chao) to join in their Christmas party, which they were giving at their centre on the afternoon of 21 December. We did not have the time to go around the industrial zone to give the goodies bags to the nearby residents. Therefore, we took them with us to the MC and it was amazing to see the hand of God in this. Sr. Lily (Superior of the house) was flustered as she had only prepared 150 gift-bags and was short of 30 as more people turned up than expected. Guess what? We had 34 goodies bags with us!
It was lovely to see the children and adults alike enjoying themselves; putting away their worries away for a little while and just be fully there. It was worth all the effort we had put in, to be a part of those blessed moments. I am so glad that I have said YES to the mission in Cambodia. It renewed my faith and hope and it is truly beautiful to be here.
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