As we walked into the HDB courtyard, we were drawn to the sounds of the drums, wandering towards the sound, we found the percussionists dressed in uniform; they looked and sounded terrific! This is just a clip of what their performance:
Don't they sound terrific? They are very talented!
After the percussion performance, we stepped back to take in what was around is. We were surprised to see right behind us lanterns made by children:
Looking closer, we found the lanterns were made of recycled materials:
Check out the tealight candle bases:
I loved this one, though I can't figure out what drew me to it... the kitty or the colors:
Two of our favorites was were these:
Aren't they adorable? The dragonfly was made with cups and bowls!
Imagine our surprise when we had a chance to meet the young lady who made them! I was even lucky enough to get a picture of her:
Isn't she adorable? She was shocked and pleased that we loved her art, but she was not sure about having her picture taken by me. Her mom had to encourage her to take a picture for us with her art. She seemed a bit shy, but I am glad she allowed us to do it. In all honesty, all of the children did a great job.
The festival had other things made by the little ones: Here are a few coloring sheets:
It is fun going to a festival that children are such a huge part of. I would rather go someplace that supports children's activities and family involvement. This festival definitely fit in that slot. We had a wonderful time.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we won a fan!
We got tickets with the $3 bag of loot and our number was called. Of course it was called in Chinese and then maybe in English... I heard a couple of them called and I didn't hear the English, but maybe it was covered by the noise... or maybe they didn't expect westerners to be taking part of their celebration :-) Regardless, thankfully they wrote them down on a whiteboard and when we checked were surprised to see our number there! We immediately donated it to the HDB housing board for this complex. I hope and trust it went to someone who needed it.
We are blessed in so many ways being in Singapore. I know God has a reason for us to be here and I think I may have found part of it. I am enjoying learning the Indonesian language and working with the children in the school - and I am sure I will love working with the children at the children's home. We go back to Indonesia October 1st, and I will at least know how to greet them. That is progress! I have been assigned the school once again this next trip, but I hope I eventually get to work at the children's home. It really doesn't matter though - I love working with kids so I will be happy doing it either place.
I am going to close with a picture of a child holding a lantern (and we saw many!) that was given out in a bag for a $3 donation. We have no idea what the money went to, but we hoped it went to the HDB community in a good way. Here is the sweetie and her lantern:
Selamat Malam... which means good night. Sweet dreams or good day if you are on the flip side. More tomorrow...
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