pre-k party.

So with the end of the semester coming much too fast, Talya and I planned a graduation/birthday party at her house. We drove our usual trip to Khayelitsha, though for the first time unaccompanied. As we pulled up to Baph, we were soon flooded with our proud kids. Despite the beautiful weather (which is at this time of the year VERY lucky!) they were wearing way too many clothes and donning unnecessary backpacks.

S potentially locked himself in the bathroom, which led to a flashback of Mori locked in the bedroom with me singing Aladdin songs. Since S speaks literally no English, coaxing him out of the room would have proved to be quite difficult. Thankfully it didn’t come to that point.

After that hic-hip, we continued with the party. We drew. We painted. We played 1,2,3 (our version of duck duck goose). We danced to Michael Jackson. We sang the chorus of Justin Bieber’s Baby. We played hide-and-go-seek and Simon Says. We ran around for no apparent reason. We played soccer. We leaked water-balloons. Yeah, we didn’t throw them because the kids just liked to poke tiny holes in them and squirt them at each other. We baked a cake and, since there is apparently no such thing as packaged frosting in South Africa, we even made homemade frosting. K tried to crack an egg semi-alone. She wasn’t so successful but we brushed the dirt off of our shoulders in time to eat pizza. We ate our cake in addition to Knick-Knacks (think Cheeto’s) and potato chips and candy. Without fail, this led to many sugar rushes, followed by a few sugar overdoses and a one or two sugar comas (Talya and I). Just when we thought the sugar flow had stopped, the kids pulled out cookies and mini-pizzas from their bags.

It was an exhausting but satisfying day that unfortunately reminded me that the end of this trip is around the corner. I really don’t know how I’m going to be able to say goodbye.