Orphanage

One of the best experiences of the whole trip was the visit to the orphanage.  Before we arrived at the orphanage we stopped by a grocery store to buy treats for the children.  Upon our arrival at the orphanage, the man in charge asked that we not give the children the candy until he said it was okay and not to give them any money.  He said that they were trying to teach the children certain values, and did not want the children to think that when they saw strangers enter their village that they should beg and expect handouts.  He needed for there to be some sort of exchange between us and the children before we gave them candy.

We were given a tour of the village, a shanty town.  As we walked through the dirt pathways between the shacks, we had to avoid stepping in the flowing streams of water that ran down the pathways.  One family of about 18 allowed us to enter their little 3 room shack; we could hear mice/rats running about between the slabs of wood and tin that acted as walls for the home.

Back at the orphanage, we were given directions to go to see the girls’ dormitory on the left.  When our group started walking to the room on the right, a teenage girl from the orphanage, in a gentle teasing manner, said to us in perfect English, “I see your English is not very good.  The girls’ dormitory is over there to the left.”

The orphanage also acted as youth center for the community with much focus placed on education.  Dona liked their little library.  The children had prepared a little skit with singing and dancing and performed for us.  At the end of the skit they grabbed everyone of in the audience so that we could dance with them.  What a beautiful exchange we had with these children.  The warmth, smiles and openness of these children despite their circumstances without a doubt touched the hearts of everyone in our group.

Dona and I held the cutest baby, he was probably about 14-16 months, and we both wanted to adopt him so badly.  We also spoke with a 20 year old girl.  She told us that she rode the bus to the city everyday to attend school and was studying human resources.  In our conversation with her, and as part of our assignment to speak with a local, we asked her what she thought was the biggest global issue.  She admitted that her view of the world is quite sheltered, but to her the biggest problem is unemployment (in South Africa the unemployment rate is around 25%).

As we were leaving the children all followed us to the bus.  Dona and I had our picture taken with the girl mentioned above and some other little children.  But I guess while getting our picture taken the little boy needed to go to the bathroom badly and turned to the side.  I had to quickly move my foot to avoid getting peed on. :)