Looking Back...Christmas at Beacon House 2010

Beacon House started the holiday season by giving a Christmas Party for some of Accra's senior citizens at HelpAge.  Alex, our student intern from NYU whose major is theater, worked with a group of BH children three days a week throughout the fall on a Christmas program.  Their hard work culminated in traveling to a senior center in Accra where they performed for the group.  The other children made Christmas cards for the seniors which were given by our performers along with fruits, cookies and juice.  Everyone had a great time and it was a wonderful way to start the holiday season.


Redeemed Christian Church Accra
Two weeks later, members of the Redeemed Christian Church of Accra visited Beacon House and provided a morning of food and fun.  They prepared lunch for everyone as well as brought extra food for the kitchen.

NAWA
The North American Women's Association (NAWA) in Accra sponsored a party at Beacon House on December 18.  Instead of bringing presents, NAWA members and their children came to Beacon House and played with the children.  The group had collected supplies to use for baking Christmas cookies later in the week.  More about that later!

Kunta-Kinte Hotel - Kaneshie
On December 22, the owners of the new Kunta-Kinte Hotel in Kaneshie, Frances and Cynthia Fuster, hosted a party at the hotel for everyone from Beacon House.  Arrangements were made by Shirley whyte, a teacher at the British International School.  A big bus arrived at Beacon House at 10 in the morning to pick everyone up and take them to the hotel.  Along with lots of music and organized games, we were treated to lots of great food including chicken, spaghetti and rice.  Santa passed out presents to everyone so we left not only with our stomachs full but also loaded down with toys and games.



Great music!




Great food!



















And Santa!!!

Now about the cookies.  Two days before Christmas, we set up an assembly line in the dining room to make Christmas cookies.  Rolling out the dough was the hardest part but once the kids got the hang of it, the cookies were made quickly.  Lot of them.  Thanks to the NAWA group we had plenty of icing and candies to decorate the cookies, although some of the children had more icing on them than the cookies.  It didn’t really matter, though.  They loved making the cookies and loved eating them even more!

Christmas morning at Beacon House ..... after a big breakfast, Shelter, one of our house mothers, discussed the meaning of Christmas to the children.  Each of the house mothers spoke and then one of the children read from the Bible the birth of Christ.  After the morning snack, it was time for the presents.  Everyone sat in a circle in front of the tree.  The first to go picked up a present and gave to the child it was addressed to. 

 Solo is blind and receives music on headphones.

Everyone watched and cheered while each took their turn opening their present.  There were lots of smiles and happy children thanks to the Ghana International School who made sure each child had a gift box filled with things chosen just for them.  

Christmas dinner was also special.  Mercy and Vero worked hard to fix a special meal that everyone enjoyed.  That afternoon, following the custom, everyone gathered around and watched the Wizard of Oz.

Hitting Pinata full of candies!

It truly was a wonderful Christmas at Beacon House this year, thanks to the generosity of many caring people.