Independence Day

Brightly colored flags lined the fence and the kids excited voices could be heard all around. December 16 is Bangladesh’s Independence Day. The teachers had planned a special day for the kids. They call it “Sports day”. I could see excited smiles on every face, from the young ones to the caregivers and even the guards. They flew their Bangladesh flag on a very tall bamboo stick and in the grassy area they had chalk circles and lines for the various games. To start out the day of games, they separated the kids in 4 different groups depending on their age. (They would compete within these groups.) All the groups lined up in single fill lines looking like an army ready to march.

 After singing their national anthem, the races began. The first, was just a simple running race. It took awhile to get through all the groups because they did a caregiver group, teacher group, and guard/other men group besides the four kid groups. The first, second and third place winners got to stand on podiums that were created from bricks. It reminded me a lot of the Olympics. 

After the running races they had frog hopping races, musical chairs, and a hilarious game where they had tied candies to a string. Then they tied the kids hands behind their backs and had them run over to the string and they’d have to jump up and try and catch a candy in their mouth and pull it off the string to win. The kids had a lot of fun with this one and it was so cute to watch all the kids jump with their mouths open wide toward the sky.

 A few weren’t used to loosing in games like musical chairs where they had to be pulled out, and they started to cry. I took the ones who were crying to sit down, but I think it didn’t help to have them all together cause they would start to stop crying and then hear the other crying and start all over. But for the most part everyone had such a blast. After the games were done, they did a reenactment of the “Freedom Fighters” fighting for independence against the Pakistani's. They painted mustaches on a few boys to play as the Pakistani fighters and they had the freedom fighters in bright orange. Everyone enjoyed watching.  

In the afternoon they had an awards ceremony. For the program, we were asked to dance again. Two other dances, some poems and a song made up this program. Then awards were handed out for the different groups. Prizes varied from candy, to hair clips, to handkerchiefs, to toy airplanes. Everyone had such a good time and you could see it in their eyes. It was a new and fun way to celebrate.