Selamat Hari Natal – Party Day!

It is less than week to Christmas and though they don’t celebrate Christmas here, as with anywhere they are always up for a party and so organise a party is just what I did.

I woke at 6am to meet Iluh and head to market to buy food to cook a Balinese feast for her family and neighbours. We had a brilliant morning, shopping, cooking and eating. I learnt some new Balinese recipes first hand and got to see a chicken move from live chicken to several tasty meals in the matter of a few hours. I have blogged in more detail about the chicken and cooking on my other blog.

After lunch it was time to prepare for the party for the local kids. Knowing I was to be volunteering in Bali around Christmas time I had pre bought a few bits of entertainment while in Australia, thinking Christmas crackers, santa hats and decorations wouldn’t be so readily available in a country that didn’t generally celebrate Christmas … I was right.

*If you are heading to volunteer during a holiday period, even if they don’t generally celebrate that holiday they are normally more than happy to learn and celebrate with you. Bring a few things from home to help celebrate … Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.

Three girls had already joined me and helped with preparations, making paper chains for decorations and blowing up balloons (no party is complete without balloons). The rest of the children arrived at 2 and we started with some lessons … LESSONS for a party?!

Don’t worry my lessons are fun! Nothing but games when in reality they are learning numbers and the alphabet. I will blog soon about my latest fun learning games.

After a few learning games, we did more crafting Christmas trees like my last day at Kindergarten, snow flake making and then it was really party time with the classics ‘musical bumps’, ‘musical statues’ and ‘pass the santa hat’ (a classic) all to the sweet notes of my Ultimate Disney album.

The kids had a blast and I couldn’t help but grin and laugh throughout the afternoon, their smiles were infectious and I could have kept dancing with them all day.

We ended with some biscuits, chocolates and drinks and I gave them each a Christmas cracker and had to explain exactly what you did with them… having never seen a Christmas cracker before. Sadly the Australian jokes inside went over my head let alone over theirs but the hats and stickers were a definite success.

I am sad there aren’t many more chances to hang out with the kids while in Bali, but excited about getting stuck into my next challenge of improving the volunteer package for future BCP volunteers.