Thanks to the generous donations of a couple ladies from my dad’s church, and my grandparents we were able to take the kids to a movie for the first time. They had never even been in a theater and it was an amazing experience for them and me. Here’s the details:
Friday, May 19 I went down to the home and told the kids that they needed to be at my house the following morning at 11 am sharp for a fun surprise. They wanted more details but I refused to give them, just promising that they would have fun.
Saturday morning I realized that there was still stuff in the back seat of the van that needed to go to the office if we were going to be able to cram 18 people (4 other adults came along to help) in. So I went over and recruited the kids to help haul it all up the the office. I was then pummulted with questions about “can we come now?” I told them that they needed to finish their chores and they could come at 11. Well. They were late. So we picked them up on the way. They still didn’t know where we were going but the ear to ear grins pretty much told the story of their excitement and willingness to be drug along to whatever.
We pulled up in front of Nakumatt (Kenya Wal-mart) and they started thinking that we were going there. I told them no. It finally dawned on them when we walked into the theater lobby and I pointed to the poster for “Ice Age 2” and said we were going to see that. They quickly whispered this information to the rest of the group in excited tones and pointing.
I gave Kayla money and had her go get them all popcorn and sodas and they diligently waited their turns and sat on the floor enjoying them while I purchased the tickets. We gathered them all and ushered them into the theater amid wide eyed stares and elbowing eachother. We found our seats and sat and they looked around at everything – the black light, the huge speakers, the comfy chairs with cup holders (Stephen found it more efficient to just leave his cup in the cup holder at his knee and bend himself in half to reach the straw rather than releasing his strangle hold on his popcorn).
It was fun to just stand and watch them look around with big eyes and talk and point. The reel started with the obligatory 1950’s video of the Kenyan flag backed with the national anthem which we stood to recognize and Kevin Mwangizi sang (not sure why but as I’d never heard the words I was amused) despite the fact that he tries soooo hard to be cool and grown up. The anthem ended and the previews began and the kids laughed and pointed and Kayla and I wondered if we’d ever seen so many preview in our lives (seriously must have been 20-30 minutes complete with commercials for rice….).
The movie started (Kayla had convinced the kids it was going to snow in the theater) and any attempts at coolness or not being a kid dissolved. Soon they were all laughing, talking, pointing and commenting to their neighbors. They loved the squirrel and Kevin decided verbally that Sid was a “jinga” (fool). It was probably a good thing that we were the only ones in the theater as the rest of the people probably would have been annoyed with us. But as this isn’t something we’ll probably do again for quite awhile (man, taking 13 kids really adds up fast, even here) I wasn’t about to shush them or dampen their fun.
Just watching their faces and reaction was so fun. Needless to say it was a huge day for them.
