Santa only visits countries like Canada?

This weekend, NOPE held a community outreach program in Nyeri. Up to this point, my exposure to NOPE has been strictly from an administrative standpoint; I have not seen what actually goes on in the field. It was absolutely amazing. The majority of the participants were peer educators, trained by NOPE throughout various programs they have conducted in the past several years, an indication of the sustainability in their work. A few of us from NOPE, as well as about 50 peer educators from six different organizations went up to spread awareness and do some community work in Nyeri (about 3 hours north of Nairobi). The day started about an hour late with a group of about 60 AIDS orphaned children dancing and singing and then telling stories about AIDS. Many of these children are living with AIDS and will not see double digits, yet they were so thrilled to be participating in an event like this. I had to choke back some tears a few times. We then divided up food that was donated to distribute to AIDS patients living in the area who are too unwell to leave their homes. We split into groups to deliver the goods to their homes and see first hand the implications of the disease. Kind of an AIDS refresher, to keep people motivated about preventing the disease in their peer education seminars. I think it worked.
After the fieldwork, people were treated to lunch, prepared by KENWA, Kenyan Women living with AIDS alliance (or something like that, too many acronyms to remember) who also run the orphanage that the children came from. After lunch all the groups in attendance performed some sort of AIDS skit, or song or something. A group of street kids who were sitting out front the entire time, which I thought were coming to steal my iPod, came in to do their bit. It was a massive song and dance with 2 drums and about 40 filthy street kids singing and dancing with amazing passion. People in the audience began joining in and the whole auditorium turned into a dance party. It was incredible.
I missed most of the skits in the afternoon because I was being completely mauled by orphans. They were absolutely fascinated by my skin, hair and especially my camera. I would take a picture of them and they would fight over the opportunity to look at the screen. I had to put it away because they were getting a little rough. About 20 of them at a time would completely surround me and hold my hands, put their arms around me and ask me question after question. I was overwhelmed as this went on for several hours. A little boy, who couldn’t have been older than 3, came up to me, sat between my legs and pulled my arms around him. He just held on and would not let go. I don’t think he gets held very often. I couldn’t help but get a little choked up.
The kids were absolutely inspiring. For those of you who gave me some money to come over with, I have found out where it is going. I plan to put some things together for them for Christmas. They think that Santa Clause only visits children in other countries like Canada; this year maybe he will have to make a detour.