Annual Birthday Celebration at Roteang Orphanage
With 74 children at Roteang Orphanage, it would be impossible to have individual birthdays, and for many of the children, we do not know their true birthdays anyway. This year our dance group put on a stunning performance in the great room in Mary Jane's House – they have now been practicing for nearly a year - in costumes made by the sewing school, and added to with belts and scarves and make-up fashioned by the nannies. Everyone in the orphanage and some outsiders came to watch. Our dance teacher had brought some extra instrumentalists, gratis, and it was really amazing to see the children perform with such pride and obvious joy.
Following the dance performance, we all moved to the wide Orphanage verandah to sing Happy Birthday, to blow out the candles, and cut the gaudy birthday cake with lots of sugar flowers, commissioned from a Phnom Penh bakery. The children and nannies also loved the elephant ear cookies, and apples, oranges, and dragon fruit, plus soda in plastic cups, which we never have at other times. Every child got to pick a new matchbox car or truck from the collection given to Dr Nancy in the USA for Christmas; some kids immediately went off to our huge sand box to race cars. The nannies got their tips, and their annual pay raises of $3 a month each were announced, so everyone was very happy.
Mam Sary, our English School director, had rigged music on a big sound system, and almost everyone got into dancing of one sort or another. Broad smiles were everywhere as the children urged on their nannies and Elephant (who is quite a dancer) and us Americans, including myself and Bopha Samms, our visiting Board member, and John Lombard our wonderful visiting minister. It was a thoroughly satisfying afternoon for everybody!