It was a real family day. More than one hundred mums and kids took part in the first brunch organised by the Family Care Centre. The event was held in Baltic Barracks on 27 February 2010.
Brunch
‘Your husbands and fathers are fulfilling their mission in Afghanistan now and you have a very important mission to do here at home,’ Commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) Lieutenant General Rainer Korff addressed all the families. ‘And you are not left alone,’ he stressed.
It has been three weeks already since the Corps’ servicemen went to Kabul for a six-month deployment. The families of the officers and non-commissioned officers as well as other members of the Headquarters met at the Allied Officers' Club to spend a nice afternoon together. The team of the Family Care Centre made sure nothing was missing. Therefore, there were excellent food and drinks, toys for kids and nannies ready to take care of the youngest so that their mothers could freely lose themselves in conversations. Nobody doubted they were all members of a big multinational family, in which even the smallest kids did not find it difficult to play with kids from other countries.
Carnival Party
As soon as the common brunch was over, all children eagerly moved to the gym. Having crossed the threshold, they all became cowboys, spidermen, pirates, supermen, princesses, bees or butterflies. The annual carnival party started.
The ladies from the Ladies Club prepared goodies for children and lots of competitions. The children especially enjoyed a special ski race in two-person teams with two skis only or a race during which two children were wearing one pair of enormous trousers…As usual, the 'hitting a barrel' play drew the greatest attention. For the needs of this competition, wooden barrels were hanged down on a rope and sweets were hidden inside them. Children were standing in a row. They approached the barrel one after another and hit it with a wooden cub. The game was over the moment the barrel was destroyed so that the children could take out the hidden sweets as trophies.
’Hitting a barrel’ is a Danish tradition that is organised at the close of the carnival (‘Fastalavn’ in Danish). One of the most famous traditions related to it is ‘hitting the cat out of the barrel’. In the past, there was a real black cat put into the barrel and beating it superstitiously meant a safeguard against evil. Nowadays, the barrels are filled with sweets and fruit and only an image of a black cat put on the barrel reminds of the old times.
More family events
The Chairman of the Family Care Centre Lieutenant Colonel Siegmar Plonka was very satisfied with a high number of participants in the Saturday family event. In fact, lots of people have already signed in for next Family Care Centre events, including a trip to the aqua park or to the seaside. It proves that apart from the assistance in trouble, the families also need a little bit of family entertainment. Since the Centre offers its help in both areas, it will definitely be a frequently visited place throughout the mission time.
