Sue’s brilliant idea for an activity.

Remember the piñata from the first post? Well, I finally finished it and incorporated it into a camp visit. We try to get things accomplished during the morning and early afternoon, so we can play with the kids when the heat of the day is really upon us. As a rule, my colleagues try to keep an overall educational tone to these play times. I was forced to explain that I am a professional aunt and as such, my professional status would be endangered if I ever actually organized anything remotely educational for the children of any nation.

Thus was born the idea for the piñata. Not only is it mindless fun, but there are toys and candy at the end of it all. In a typical brain cramp moment, I fashioned the piñata in the shape of an elephant, regrettably, an animal sacred to the people of Sri Lanka. Doh! All of a sudden, it became educational:

“You see, there’s this country called Mexico? Where they don’t have elephants at all see? And they smack open a piñata on birthdays because elephants aren’t special to them? Nobody gets offended, because they aren’t sacred there or anything? So you see, it’s okay to take the cricket bat and destroy one of the most revered symbols of your country because the white people said it was acceptable…”
Suffice it to say the next one is being fashioned as a donkey or something…haven’t seen one of those around here. I know that Kate, Kara, Joel, Jill, Jenna, Erik, Jonathan, Danny-boy and Biddie-Boo will give me a pass on the educational thing. (As long as I don’t get all didactic with them, they can be very forgiving)
My plans for the 4th of July include standing in line to renew my visa for another month. Then we plan to purchase some cook stoves for a camp that has been cooking over open fires for the past 6 months. Soyasupora refugee camp is under a basic structure, like a huge pavilion with sheets suspended to section off each family from the others. As far as temporary housing goes, these folks are in the worst shape of all the camps we’ve seen in Moratuwa. Because they are squatting on the land, the NGO’s can’t really help them out. It’s going to have to be a small independently funded group like us that comes in and just starts building. Then when we get called on it by some official, we just shrug our shoulders and say, “Sorry, we didn’t know, but as long as we’re almost done…”
I hope this finds everyone well and remember, I’d kill for a hot dog on a potato roll right about now…