PRESENTING: The First Love Kids

The kids at this orphanage have a three week holiday. When I get a three week holiday at home, I usually go somewhere or I sit around watching TV at home.  
These kids are pretty much going to be located on their property in Karen, Nairobi Kenya, unless they go to the church or the doctor (the latter has been happening way to often)....


So I thought to myself - What can I do for these kids so that they are slightly entertained? So I thought - WHY NOT HOST A TALENT SHOW? On Tuesday, I announced there would be a talent show on Friday and that I wanted them to start practicing because I would give the participants something special (spoiler: I made chocolate chip cupcakes).... I thought a talent show would be a good idea because I learned REALLY QUICKLY that these kids are such incredible dancers. When I try to dance with these kids, they laugh at me (which is not unexpected. I laugh at my own dancing). I figured they would be excited to perform some of their dances and play their drums in front of each other since they did that all day every day anyways.  


Unfortunately, I was having a lot of trouble trying to encourage the kids to perform...especially the older ones (I guess teenagers everywhere are just tooooo cool for school). So for the next 3 days I went around BEGGING these kids to perform. I mostly received 'NO's, or really weird looks followed by laughter.... except for Francisca who kept telling me she was going to perform to a song called "Ganja Man" which I was also obviously surprised to hear she was listening to...


The day of the talent show came and on my list, I had a massive SEVEN (*sarcasm*) acts lined up which did not include one boy or girl over the age of 12. So. I made a banner (obviously b/c my special talent is banner making) that said "First Love Talent Show" and tried my best to set the stage. 


I was expecting incredible dancers and.................................... Incredible dancers is what i got! These tiny girls got up there and SHOOK IT. Everyone was having a really good time and so as the acts proceeded, many kids came up to me, telling me they had an act to perform as well! In the end, I had to cut them off because we got to 20 acts!!

Some singing

some acting

some poetry reciting

some dancing and drumming

By the time the talent show was over, the boys had performed TWICE, almost every single older girl danced or sang and it was all really great success. I was also really surprised by creativity of these kids. At one point in the show, the song “one step at a time” started playing from nowhere and one of the older girls walked in in high heels and started strutting her stuff like she was in a fashion show. 

Overall, it was a really fun night and I really hope that it made these kids more confident in their abilities to get up in front of a crowd and show people all the talents they've got!