Foster mom surprises daughter with “real life” Moana experience

May 22, 2022 News

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By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – About a month ago, photographs of a four-year-old girl, Kayla Gomes, dressed up as Moana for her birthday party went viral after they were posted on Facebook.
Many were taken aback because the photos brought the animated movie character, Moana, to life and little Kayla was the star.
In one of the photos, she is seen with a paddle in her hand, sitting on a bamboo and wooden raft that floated in a creek located at Karaudarnau. Karaudarnau is a small Indigenous village that could be found in the Rupununi Savanah along the right bank of the Rupununi River in the Region Nine district of Guyana. Standing beside her in the water were Maui with his fish hook, one of the heroes of the Walt Disney animated film and Moana’s mom.
After seeing the photos, Kaieteur News was eager to meet Kayla and learn about the story behind the Moana themed birthday celebration that captivated a huge social media audience.
This newspaper soon found out that it was actually part of a surprise package that took two months of preparation and planning by Kayla’s foster mom for her fourth birthday on March 23, last.
Speaking with Kaieteur News, her foster mother, Krista DaSilva, age 24, said, “We have always celebrated her birthday before but this time, we wanted to do something special for her.”
“I was thinking and thinking and then the idea came, she loves Moana, let us do her a Moana themed birthday party,” DaSilva related.
Rather than just preparing just a Moana themed cake, DaSilva decided to go the extra mile. She wanted to give her little princess a “a real life” Moana experience for her birthday.
“I wanted it to be real for her, for it to be real life, something that she would always remember,” DaSilva told Kaieteur News.

DaSilva began her planning early January and started the preparation by gathering the materials for the costumes.
She tasked her own mother with designing and making the costumes and even hired a craftsman to build the raft, carve the paddle and make Maui’s hook and the other props to replicate items of the film.
As the ideas kept coming, she decided that the same craftsman, Aaron Stephen, popularly known as the Guyanese “Jack Sparrow”, will impersonate Maui to make the experience for Kayla even more “real life”.
Stephen agreed and DaSilva decided to take it a step further by having the invitees dress in costumes too and rehearse dances and songs from the movie for the big day.
Finally, it was the eve of March 23 and a nosey little Kayla saw her costume and got a heads up of what was coming, but one thing was missing.
“After she saw her costume, she said: ‘Mommy, mommy where is yours? You have to get one too, you are my mom’,” recalled DaSilva.
“I had no plans of playing the role of Moana’s mom but looking into her little excited eyes, I knew what I had to do; I had to get myself a costume too,” DaSilva added.
As the young woman reminisced on March 23, she chuckled while describing Kayla’s reaction to the surprise they had prepared for her.
“She was all smiles; she was just so happy. We did the entrance dance for her and we tried to make our performances perfect, perfect,” said DaSilva.
For Kayla, there was only one disappointment, her dad is her hero and she wanted him to be Maui, nevertheless, she became comfortable with the Maui she got and was quite happy and contented with the surprise for her birthday.
Even to this day, DaSilva said she would tell her friends about the party and would look back at her photos every day, to see herself starring as Moana.

Asked why Kayla fell in love Moana, DaSilva responded, “We really don’t know. She watches cartoons like any other toddler but when it comes to Moana, there is something different; she recites all the songs and would watch the movie over and over again. She even wanted a pet like Moana; we could not get her a chicken but we got her a pig and he is troublesome.”
Her parents believe that Kayla associates herself with the Moana character because of the environment where they live.
Her village resembles that of the village seen in the movie; it is located close to a river, has a little beach and the practices of the villagers are almost the same: they hunt, fish and even farm. It might just be that little Kayla will one day be the hero of Karaudarnau Village, following in the footsteps of Moana, a character known for her bravery, fearlessness and determination for success.
Probably she might have already started being a hero by bringing people together.

In fact, she was the one that brought DaSilva and her dad, 21-year-year-old Shane Gomes, together. A few months after she was born, her biological mom separated from her dad and left the village.
Gomes was a young father at the time and did not have much experience to raise Kayla on his own and needed some help.
According DaSilva, Kayla’s “cuteness” attracted her and she decided that she would babysit and help Gomes take care of her.
The days she spent with Kayla created a bond and she did not want to leave her.
As fate would have it, Kayla’s dad started falling in love with DaSilva and when the opportunity presented itself, she did not refuse to become Kayla’s mom.

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