HHFL's first ever easter egg hunt…

Written by Alexandra Howard, daughter of Mama Hanne

On Sunday April 4th, Mum, Ted, Sebastian (my 1 1/2 year old) and I hosted HHFL’s first ever easter egg hunt at the project. As you can imagine, the kids had never heard of such a thing so Mum started by explaining the concept. As I scanned the 35 faces surrounding my mum as she spoke, I could see that there was confusion as much as there was excitement. You mean, you hide chocolates and sweets in far reaching places and we run around as fast as we can to find them? And then we keep and eat them all? YUP!

We corralled the excited kids into the hostel and the ‘grown ups’ scurried around the compound hiding about 100 sweets, chocolates and raw eggs on roofs, swings, benches, ledges, rocks..anything with a reasonable surface. As we were doing this, I could see the kids’ faces peeking through the hostel window as we went about our business…no peeking said Mama Hanne!! But of course, kids will be kids and there was no way around that one.  We counted down loudly…3,2,1 and Mama Mary opened the door…well thank goodness I was holding Sebastian in my arms because holy smokes…what a fast and furious exit! Thirty five  stampeding kids ran like bulls in a china shop to every nook and cranny on the compound, gleaming and squealing with every find.  I guess they understood the concept after all. And like every egg hunt, the competition only grew stronger as the last sweets were being pursued..thank goodness there were no casualties!

But like a good and fair mother, Mama Hanne insisted that everyone put their loot in a communal bowl since it became quite obvious that the older kids’ collection of sweets far outweighed that of the younger ones. Poor Sebastian didn’t even manage to collect one sweet – no sooner did he make eye contact with a lone little chocolate on the ground in front of him was he side swiped by someone much larger and swifter – I tell you, there really is no mercy in battle!

After the last goodie was found, the kids, including Sebastian, stood patiently in a line and waited their turn to collect their share.  Everyone received a lollipop, bite-sized chocolates, hard candies and a raw egg, which was later converted into delicious scrambled, fried and boiled eggs by Mama Margaret…a special Easter treat for our deserving kids.

It was such a wonderful morning and Sebastian and I were very happy to share our Easter customs with the HHFL kids. It was one of those fleeting moments where the differences in how and where we live in this world did not matter. We were bound by one commonality for the hour that we spent together running around in circles in search of sugar: good old fashioned fun. The kids are already wondering whether, in our part of the world, we have ‘candy hunts’ for any other occasions 🙂 Who knows, perhaps we can start a new tradition??

Enjoy the video, which shares some of the excitement! Alex

Share

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

This post was written by
Comments are closed.