This morning Juliet and I had breakfast in our cafe before heading back to the house to pick up all the ingredients for our FIESTA at El Kinder. This included… Popcorn, mashmallows, coca cola and… GLOBOS! (Balloons). While the children practiced their marching, national anthem singing and then went into their classrooms for a short lesson, Juliet and I cooked popcorn in a huge pan, blew up hundreds of balloons until we practically passed out (it’s very hard in the altitude!) and set about making party bowls for all the children.

Once the lessons had finished and Juliet and I had managed to tackle all the children away from the door so that we could get them to sit down, we picked three of them to help us (they were so so happy by this) and served out the bowls of biscuits, popcorn, marshmallows and the cups of coca cola. Obviously the children then became VERY hiper, with the mix of sweet food, coca cola and the music that was playing from the huge stereo, they were all extremely happy! Especially with the marshmallows as they’ve never had them before and absolutely LOVED them. Soon it was time for the balloons to come out, once again the children tried to break into the room where we’d stored them but the stereo was in the way and Juliet and I were batting them right into the middle of the garden and all of the children were running after them, screaming, trying to get one of their own and then not letting any one touch it. It was absolutely hilarious to watch and also so exciting as the children were literally so so happy, they kept shouting GLOBOS GLOBOS!!!

Soon the balloons started popping which was absolutely hilarious. Juliet and I thought it could be a problem but once the children had got over the shock of the first few balloons, they found it really funny and laughed at whoevers balloon was the next victim. Those with balloons left kept a close eye on them, not letting anyone else near them incase they popped too! Juliet went over to a little girl, Nicole, to start playing with her balloon and popped it! The little girl ran away crying!!! It sounds so awful but it was so funny at the time as Juliet literally only touched it once and swore never to touch a balloon again!!!

The children were absolutely thrilled and so were we.

It was then photo time and the moment Juliet and I got our cameras out, the children all gathered round to show off their balloons and their biggest smiles and silly faces.

When it was home time, those children with balloons still alive, proudly ran over to their parents to show them and then carried them all the way home. They were still so happy and excitable by the days events. One little girl, Sandra, who had been so fixated on my camera and taking millions of photos, hadn’t realised that her balloon had been taken home by another child in all the excitement. Soon most of the children had gone and the minute she realised that along with the other niños, her balloon was also gone, she started wailing and sobbing and wouldn’t stop! We had to promise her that we’d bring her another present tomorrow just to stop the noise! It goes to show how important a simple thing like a balloon is to a little girl…