Friday, August 31, 2012

Celebrating Madame Carr's 100th Birthday!


This past Tuesday afternoon we commemorated Madame Carr’s 100th birthday at Imbabazi Orphanage. Though it threatened to rain all day, it held off and we had a wonderful celebration in the dancing garden. In addition to Madame Carr’s birthday we also celebrated the birthdays of all the children born in May, June, July, and August. 


Serving up sambusas and cake!


The event was a showcase of how hardworking our kids are here at Imbabazi. Three of our cooking students helped bake six cakes to feed everybody. Another coordinated with a local bakery to place a large order of sambusas – a deep fried pocket stuffed with ground meat that everybody loves. Our band practiced all morning – even learning a brand new song “Happy Birthday”. We had a master of ceremony who ran the show. After the party was over everyone pitched in to clean up.

Issa and the band performing
The children played frisbee and baseball for an hour in the garden and even invented a version of badmitton hitting balloons back and forth instead of a birdie. The band put on a faboulous show for us all - and for many of our neighbors who gathered to listen when they heard the musicians warming up. Issa serenaded us with a cover of a well known pop song here in Rwanda called “Narashize.” One of our older students, Bingwa, stepped up as the master of ceremony and said a few words about Madame Carr and then all the kids shared their memories. Our MC distributed presents to those children with recent birthdays and the student-chefs served up sambusas, cake, and candy for all – including the Imbabazi staff members and young children in the community. It was a great time! Join us for next year’s celebration!