It’s Christmas party season at ReVive! Little over a week after the fabulous festa for the girls, staff and volunteers, on Saturday morning there was a party for the ReVive girls plus the boys and staff from My Father’s House.
This time the venue was the ReVive House, which had been thoroughly cleaned the previous day and was looking festive thanks to a beautifully-adorned tree and many decorations hanging from the ceiling.
The arrival of the food (pictured above) and drinks, notably an enormous chocolate cake, fully set the scene for a Christmas extravaganza.
The boys and staff from My Father’s House, a similar project to ReVive, also in Olinda, arrived to get the party started. Initial, understandable, stand-offishness between most of the girls and boys (think of a school disco) was ended by the giving of presents.
Each youngster was presented with a gift, which they mainly unwrapped with relish. One girl, who had perhaps not been given many presents before, needed help opening her’s: make-up, a necklace and earrings. Her joyful expression once it was unwrapped was priceless!
The food, including the delicious cake, and drink were shared around as many of the boys and girls played with their new gifts.
Then it was time for more fun! Roz, my wife, and I played a few games, using equipment from the Base Pack provided by The Kings Foundation, that the girls had previously enjoyed.
We started with Monkey Football where everyone initially stands in a circle with legs apart. The object of the game is to roll a football between someone else’s legs while they try to stop this by using their hands to block the ball. The boys quickly caught on to this and a competitive but good-natured game ensued.
Next it was time for Benchball, a game similar to netball. But rather than trying to throw the ball into a high net, one member of each team stands on a chair (or bench if you have one) and tries to catch the ball, thus gaining their team a point.
Each team had a mix of girls and boys, with a few staff members and volunteers also getting involved. Having previously played this game with the girls in late afternoons, it was hot and sweaty in the midday sun, so we kept the game short and sweet.
We finished the games with some less intensive Frisbee activities, finally trying to throw Frisbees into a hoop around 10 metres (33 feet) away. This kept some of the youngsters occupied until, sadly, it was time for the boys to go amid warm farewells.
Some of the My Father’s House staff were able to stay a bit longer before a brilliant party drew to a close. More heartfelt farewells were shared and invitations were extended to visit the boy’s house another day.