We had the birthday party on Wednesday. Ever since I came down here with Wright State, we have done the birthday party. It is usually for the boys who have birthdays in November, December, and sometimes January. I haven't really gone to the boys' birthday party since I was last here with WSU in 2006 except one summer that I was here for a week in 2009. The funny thing is that every one is exactly the same, but the boys love it every time.
The boys spend about an hour playing with toys that are held to be played only during birthday parties.
There are checkers, legos, toy cars, and other "sunday nursery" type toys.
Here are a couple of boys with the toys they are playing with.
Tom (one of the Passionist Volunteer International volunteers [PVIs]) joined us at the party.
Once the boys are finshed with the toys, Mimi gets them together for cake. We sing Happy Birthday and they all fan out the candles with their hands because if they blow on them, they will spit on the cake.
After cake and ice cream (which is a really messy ordeal for me because I dish it out), the boys play musical chairs. Mimi really enjoys it, even if she looks like she is yelling at the boys to behave. After the musical chairs, they have a dance-off. Then we passed out their presents, which is usually a hat and toy airplane or something like that, with some smaller trinkets.
After the party, I spent the rest of the day on the playfield with the boys. I'm finding that either I'm out of shape, or 27 years old is too old to keep up with these boys. I get worn out too soon. After the boys ate supper and showered, Edney and I went out to eat in Mandeville and got Chinese food.
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I didn't do a whole lot yesterday, honestly. I kind of chose to take the day off...i got a few naps in between meals. Pat Kelly came in the evening. He comes each year to play Santa for the boys. We had a cookout at the convent and Newton (he runs the catering department here) cooked hamburgers for us all. I then went up school and let the boys who passed for the week (good behaviour) watch a couple of movies (Despicable Me and the Incredibles). The consensus was that they liked The Incredibles more, although the found parts of Despicable Me funny.
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Today we packed presents for the boys. All of the stuff Pat and I brought down, along with other things Mimi has gotten through the year, we put together into packages for the boys for Christmas. It was my time to actually be one of Santa's elves
As the picture shows, they don't really get much, and the biggest thing they might get is a McDonald's happy meal toy. Don't get me wrong, it's a Happy Meal toy after all, what kid wouldn't want a Happy Meal toy for Christmas? Besides the juice, which they drink right away, they spend all of Christmas playing with the sack of things they got, and have the most fun ever. Yeah, it doesn't last long, but they have fun nonetheless. More of that to come after Christmas, I don't want to spoil the story.
What is selected to go into the bags is based on the boys' behaviour. Sr. Mimi has her naughty/nice list, and the boys who have had good behaviour get more and better things. The lesser behaved kids get very little. Such is life though. They are given 15 weeks and 2 chances each week to keep good behaviour, so it's not like they weren't told. Those with 3 or fewer passes don't even get to receive presents.
I went on the playfield for the rest of the day and sat and chatted with a few of the boys. Once they went in for supper, I went to the convent and had dinner. It was supposed to be a 40th birthday party for Newton, but he got busy with some catering business, so we may actually have to celebrate another time. His birthday is on Christmas, but he doesn't like to celebrate it then for obvious reasons.
Well, that's what's been going on the past few days. O, before I finish, I received news the other day that a past boy, Carlos Baker (Popeye), was shot dead in Montego Bay. He was trained in the catering department and was working in MoBay. He has been gone from here for about 4 or 5 years. Please keep him and his friends and family in your prayers. I don't really know any other official details besides that.
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