This year’s Christmas event at the CALA village was for everyone to make their own little toys to take home. Some of the many art supplies that Enid Bultz (EB) donated were used to create these toys and games for over 70 kids. Enid: A big thank you from all the kids in Antalaha!

Rado drilled about 100 Wawa seeds with holes going right through the middle of the seed (thank you Rado!). The Wawa seeds are locally found Entada seeds.

The pipe cleaners and googly eyes were supplies from Enid that I brought with me when I arrived to Mada in October.

A project that I suspected would take around 45 minutes, ended up lasting for over three hours. They had a great time while laughing, creating, talking about ideas and then ended up using up all the extra materials to keep going until all that was left to do was show off their results to each other and giggle some more. We all had a great time!

With all the left over pipe cleaners, some made head gear.

Special thanks to Victoire (teacher and village resident) for her help to gather the kids together for this fun project, for always being around to volunteer and for keeping the CALA village family together all year round.

When the excitement of that was over, I had stickers for everyone, again thanks to Enid, and then Marie Helene came by with cookies! Everyone sang songs and we danced.

Christmas here in the CALA village, is all about being with neighbors and family, having food and something to drink and having a couple of days off work and school. No Xmas trees, no gifts to open in the morning, no Petit Papa Noel… It might be one of the few places in the world left without pop culture influences, but just 7 km away, I can already see a Christmas tree with flashing lights outside a little wooden house in the “town” of Antalaha… Running on solar power.

Happy holidays and here’s to 2018 and all that it has in store, no matter where in the world you rest your head!