500 Children.....NOT Spending the Day at the Dump!!

June 1st we celebrated Children's day with the community up at the Peak. We expected 300 children...planned for 400...and ended up with a little more than 500!!!! Yikes!! Logistics were a challenge..but by and large it went beautifully and everyone had a wonderful time!!

So many fun choices!!

...meanwhile in the kitchen ....

Some of the over 2000 khoshuur and tons of potato salad our cooks ( and our accountant!!) pitched in to make and give away to the families of the 500+ kids who came out to celebrate Children's Day!

31 Degrees!! SOOOOO Hot!

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Everywhere you looked there were special moments going on.  Six, seven eight year olds putting their younger siblings ahead of themselves to play games, get prizes, collect toys or sweets or just have fun!  Our local Khoroo chief and Chelvan making sure this little one didn't suffer from heat stroke....and Tomo our local mentally handicapped little one who used to live with his mother in a shed until a generous anonymous donor provided a ger for them, having a chance to just be a kid and play with the other kids....Or maybe even just the wry amusement one feels as the heat, excitement and activity all just became too much for some of the little ones.  My maternal instinct tells me there were a LOT of naps happening after folks went home.  A wonderful feeling though to be able to provide some kind of celebration for children who otherwise wouldn't have had one on this most important festival  day in Mongolia.

Here's some more shots of the day....