Sarnelli House Foundation, Thailand

    Christmas day is celebrated differently in all parts of the world. We are two German girls who were allowed to spend Christmas season in Sarnelli House. So we had the luck to experience this special time of the year in another country with  new people and different celebrations. 

     The whole Christmas magic started for us on the 23 of December. There we became part of quite a big Christmas Party at the catholic Rosario school. Some of the Sarnelli kids go to this school. The children performed dances on a huge stage and of course there was sufficient food and drinks for everyone. All this really got us into a Christmas atmosphere and we were ready for Christmas to come.

     All the Christmas celebrations continued on the 24th of December. In the evening there was a big party on the meadow in Don Wai, next to Charlene house. It all began with a mass in the little church, which was beautifully decorated, where the children performed the Christmas Story during the service.

A lot of kids from Sarnelli and the village joined the Christmas Party. There was a little stage on which some Sarnelli kids, as well as some village kids and some Sarnelli staff danced. It is so great to watch the boys and girls on the stage and to proudly cheer  them on.

On this day it was also the first performance of the well known Santa Clause! (alias Father Chuck) All the children love Santa Clause and are crazy about him, of course he had some candies for the kids.

The happiness was overwhelming. Furthermore there was also a little raffle, where you could win useful things for just a little money and everybody loved it and so did we. The main prize was a beautiful bicycle, we unfortunately just won 7 tubes of toothpaste....

     The actual Christmas Party was one day later on the 25th in PiSiTong, at the boys houses. Also there was set up a little stage. Again we had a lot of great dancing no matter if it was the girls, the boys or the babies. Of course Santa Clause didn't miss this Christmas Party and he even had a present for every single of the 170 Sarnelli children. In addition the packages from the sponsors and there were also some visitors from Bangkok who sponsored a lot of presents and even more sweets.

For us it was such a gift to see how happy every child was about their presents. Then you forget how far away you are from home and that you celebrate Christmas so differently. It was a really wonderful experience to be here in Thailand at Christmas with exactly these children.

     Our little Christmas marathon ended on the 30^th of December with one last Party for all the kids from the Outreach program. Therefore it was also Santa’s last performance  and he could give out his last presents and finally get a little rest until next Christmas.      

Marcia and Lena

January 2012

Don Wai, Thailand