The Christmas Feast!

We need to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated this Christmas!! Because of you, some sweet young people will be going to school, will be starting a business, and were able to have a really fun year-end party with the whole Rehma Crew!! 

When I had originally started planning for this event, it looked a lot different. It was suppose to be a small community feast but it turned into a large gala for our youth and their friends. It became a bit challenging as I had set a budget and raised a certain amount of money. It was really hard to stick within in this budget and still do all that we wanted to do but we managed to pull it off!

It all went down in a run-down bar...not my first choice of venue but it was actually a really decent set up for a really really good price. We got the whole place to ourselves with a big screen to watch the football games and a DJ to play tunes all night. We had the locals make enough biryani to feed an army so everyone got a plate or two. I had my sweet friend Paulina make us a delicious cake and got these two gentlemen below to help us decorate. Not all things went as planned. My deco was a bit lack-luster, the microphone didn't work, and we couldn't hook the computer up to the projector so we couldn't show them the awesome slide show I had prepared. But we still had fun!!!

 Emmanuel and Ryan came to help us set up and stuck around once people started to arrive. They were troopers as none of my deco ideas worked, the tape I bought was melting, and my scissors dull. 

Then the guests started to arrive! Each one of the youth in our programs were allowed to bring one guest.

 Zizou brought his sweet wife, Saumu, who is doing hairdressing school. Side note: I went to visit her at school this week and the lady teaching her told me that she will hire Saumu full time once she completes the course! Yipee!

 Riise brought his wife too who we had never met!

 Most of the others just brought a friend, brother, cousin, neighbour. 

 Allan brought his mom! So sweet!

 My girls looked amazing!! I saw them walking up to the door in their long, black buibuis. Once they reached the door, they took off their buibuis to reveal their colourful outfits. They were so cute!! 

 I got the staff to take off all the table clothes that advertised beer and then I put up some christmas deco. 

 Seriously love this couple! They are so sweet. 

 Time to feast! Actually, I didn't like the biryani. The meat tasted to 'gamey' to me. But everyone else loved it!

 I think the night was more about looking good than anything else. Everyone came dressed to impress. 

We asked the Dj to stop the music so we could do some speeches. We had a handful of people come up and say how much they loved and appreciated being apart of the Rehma Family. They all encouraged one another to stay together and grow closer so that they can help one another. One young man came up and only had one message "Stop doing drugs". He had stopped doing drugs a while back and is now doing so well in life. He is making lots of money, has a wonderful wife and newborn, and he is happy and healthy. It was also an honour to have Kelvin's mom with us so she can see what we do. 

After the speeches and cake, we danced! and danced! and danced! 

It was the perfect end to a wonderful year with the Rehma Family.