Kids Day!

So Sunday was International Youth Day in Cape Verde (CV is a BIG fan of naming things International (FILL IN THE BLANK) Day, although Iºm not sure where the international part comes in. So me, my associacao and the church (the church was VERY interested in connecting with the youth as there is hardly a single person under the age of 50 that goes to church here anymore) put on a pretty good little show with singing, dancing, some contests and a soccer game. Mostly the message was “Hey, kids are our future, they’re important, let´s pay attention to them. Also, please come to church from now on…we´re running out of people!” My contribution to the event was an oral essay contest on Why We (the Cape Verdian Youth) Are Important, with a huge big bag of Starbursts as the prize for best entry. Turned out there were 3 of them (entries that is) and they all got up and read them in front of everyone, and they were all excellent. I couldn’t pick a winner so we just split the huge great bag of Starbursts in three so everyone went home a winner. Anyway, there was a pretty good turnout (maybe 70 people) and it lasted most of the afternoon.

So is this community Development in action? I guess that´s debatable, but I think the point of the exercise was to 1) have the community together (how can you develop it if you’re not all together), 2) get the kids thinking and caring about themselves and their future, 3) instill confidence in the kids (I think that comes from speaking in front of groups, especially on a microphone) 4) have fun! I give us 4 out of 4!

ps
Is it just me or is Sylveria´s babyt´s hair-do the coolest thing ever? If only I had any hair, I wsould fix it like that.