Just as in the U.S. and Europe Christmas is a huge holiday in Rwanda. It’s a time for families and friends to come together and enjoy each other’s company, eat a lot of food and perhaps exchange gifts. It’s no different at the Rwandan Orphans Project. In recent years Christmas has been celebrated at the ROP Center by sharing a meal on Christmas day, usually followed by some performances of song and dance from our boys. This year, however, we wanted to give them the best Christmas they’ve yet had. We received some very generous Christmas donations from various people that helped us with this idea. We expected this to be a Christmas to remember at the ROP.

Christmas Eve was a day for celebrating with the staff, children and visitors. Jenny started off the day by having the boys make decorations for the Center. Some of them stuck to the design while others just stuck pieces anywhere and everywhere.

After everyone finished we decorated our “tree”.

After the tree was well adorned we decided to give the boys an early Christmas present. We had many “new” clothes that had been donated by various visitors during the previous few months and we had been saving them for this day. As is the tradition we laid all of the clothing on the floor of the dining hall so all the boys could see what they had to choose from. As you can imagine each boy eyes the item he wants and hopes that nobody else chooses that item before their turn comes.

Of course we have to make sure that they fit before they take them. Often the younger, smaller boys choose clothes that are much too big for them simply because they like their design. This leads to the occasional round of tears when a small child is told he cannot have a sweatshirt that is meant to fit an adult.

After all the boys had chosen their clothes we had a treat for them. Elisabeth, the ROP’s staff psychologist, is good friends with a very well known Rwandan artist called Ben Gangi. She asked him to come and perform for our boys as a Christmas treat and he accepted. From the moment he started singing the boys were dancing all over the dining hall and singing along at the top of their lungs.

We had some visitors from a local business who brought candy and backpacks for our children, and as they handed them out I asked the boys if any of them wanted to sing using the microphone. To everyone’s surprise Saidi, one of the youngest boys at the Center, snatched the mic from my hand, confidently walked up to the front of the room and began singing the lyrics of a well known Rwandan hip hop song. Everyone, especially the older boys, erupted in applause for Saidi’s courage and talent.

Next Pacifique stepped up and sang another song, again bringing cheers and laughter to everyone in the Center.

By late afternoon our Christmas Eve celebration had come to an end. The staff took one last photo together before Jenny and I left so we could begin preparing the big surprise for the next day.

That night we began preparing gift bags for the children. In November Jenny came up with the idea of giving one bag, full of goodies and necessities, to each boy for Christmas. We knew it wouldn’t be an easy task, but thanks to generous Christmas donations from the Wynne family and from our old Polish friends Anna and Pavel we had the money and materials to to give each one his own “stocking”.

Christmas morning we excitedly packed the bags in the car and brought them to the Center. We had the staff move all of the children into the dining hall so none of them knew that we had anything for them. The staff was well surprised at what we had in store for the boys. After our friend and long time supporter Dianne arrived we carted the bags into the hall. The boys were confused and excited, not knowing what was going on.

We talked a little about Christmas and the wonderful year we’ve had at the ROP, but we didn’t talk too long because the boys just wanted to get to it.

We began handing out the bags, each tagged with a name card for each boy. They hurriedly returned to their seats and began digging through them.

Inside each bag was some candy, pencils, pens, a notebook, stickers, balloons, a washcloth two pairs of new underwear and, for the bigger boys, a stick of deodorant. They were all so thrilled with everything, especially the new underpants, as many of them have never had them before and some of them had been asking for them for quite some time.

Dianne then spoke to the boys, followed by Jean Claude, one of the older boys. He gave thanks for their unexpected gifts and for everything the staff has done and continues to do for them.

Then we cut the boys loose. They all ran into their dormitories to put their stuff away and to try on the new undies. The joy was palpable.

 

The younger boys were so excited to try on their underwear that they didn’t even bother to remove the tags from them.

That wasn’t the end of their Christmas, however. Dianne had very generously paid for Christmas dinner to be brought by a restaurant in town. Thanks to her we were all able to enjoy a fantastic meal. The boys loved having choices they don’t usually get, such as beef, chicken, peas, salad and all kinds of good stuff.

After dinner everyone returned to the dorms and their bags. It was a wonderful day for all of us, both the staff and the children. To see how receiving simple things like underwear, pens and balloons makes our boys so happy is a reminder of just how easy it is to take what we have for granted. More than the gifts themselves what brought joy for a lot of them was just receiving gifts at all. Some of the older boys told me that the day was the happiest they’ve ever had. What better Christmas gift could one ask for?