HO! HO! HO!

Christmas Day, Choraha Village, Bihar, India.

This was a wonderful day of delivering a little respite to the students of the LBCS, and their friends and families. Mahendra, Kapil, and I began decorating the main classroom (complete with a tree!) and found a young man to wear the Santa Claus costume that was emphatically way too small for me. 

I trundled out a little ad hoc speech about Christmas being a time of sharing and caring with and for one another and that Santa Claus isn’t just a big round guy who gives toys to kids, he’s very much supposed to be the spirit of giving and everyone has a Santa inside them. To prove it, one of the older boys fit into the costume enough to render the rest of us Santa’s Little Helpers!

We sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (honest to God, I couldn’t think of anything other than “Jingle Bells” and a bunch of carols that I could only half remember the words to), prepped paper plates for around a hundred people with pakora, cake, cookies and yes, Kit-Kats. Everyone loves Kit-Kats. I passed the camera over to some of the older students and let them take pictures of each other.

The younger children and their families partook of the provender and then, everyone just sort of vanished! At one point, I looked up to see the children and their parents or guardians heading back to the village. A group came over and grabbed my hands and said thank you, giggled and trundled off.

Mahendra tells me everyone had an awesome time for which I’m grateful. I was taking pictures, but also doling out food and cleaning up and didn’t get a chance to see much more than what I was able to snap. He tells me this is one of those occasions that they’ll be talking about next year and that the quality of the food and the decorating really made a huge difference.

Here’s the thing: so little went so far and so little resulted in much happiness, if only for a couple of hours. I wished Zeylin and Lewis, two of my traveling companions from Varanasi, could have been here since they were so enthusiastic about helping out, but I am really grateful and happy to have participated in this little bit of Christmas cheer.

For how you can help, the LBCS’s support page is here: https://lcbschoraha.blogspot.in/.

The key to the success of any good party is the preparation! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!



Avengers Assemble! Everyone proceeded in an orderly fashion to sit, listen to some (hopefully) inspiring words, sing a quick "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and then watch and wait for treats and more fun.


We found our Santa!




The cake is cut and the crew springs into action arranging plates and handing out the goodies! Socializing ensues.


I handed my camera off to our older stalwarts and they did their own photo ops. Guys! Why so serious? They'd be laughing and goofing around and when it came to photos, they definitely go into "model" mode.
Except for this guy.

I walked outside with my cookie and, aw, snap!



The party over, Mahendra delivers some final words and a happy time draws to an end.




Mahendra and Santa Claus leaving to spread yuletide cheer elsewhere. It's true. Mahenra has an inside with the man from the Arctic Circle!
 

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