On Day 259, we wanted to keep things simple. Some kids. Some fruit. And a party!
In Kyangwali, you don’t see much fruit. The land is actually quite fertile, and the farmers in the settlement are able to produce quite a bit of maize and beans. But nobody is growing fruit. And to purchase fruit is too expensive for most people. A single pineapple costs about $1, which would break most people’s household budget. Every once and awhile you’ll see bananas in Kyangwali, but on the whole there is very little fruit in the Kyangwali diet.
So, we decided to throw a little fruit party on Day 259. And – because most of them had never even had the chance to taste some fruits – we decided to make it a kids-only party.
We invited hundreds of young people, including everyone who had run in the Kids Marathon on Day 258. Their eyes got big when they arrived and saw a huge buffet of fruits – watermelon, pineapple, bananas and paw paws (papaya). The kids dug in, and before long everyone had juice running down their chins and plenty of sticky fingers.
“It’s not common to see children being fed without interference,” said Maama Shadadi, a mother of one of the kids who came to the fruit party. “But this kids party is showing children how important they are to this community.”
Another change made possible by Atomic Data.
