A little bit of everything

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while! …I’ve been pretty busy and the power is always out at my house..Like all the time.  So last week I volunteered at an orphanage because the school I’m at was on holiday. It was really hard but all in all a really great experience. Picture a commercial from world vision…the kids without shoes, the malnourished belly’s, the small dirty broken homes, that’s what it looked like at the orphanage I was at. Teaching the kids was a real challenge. They didn’t know the difference between the letter A and the number one. By the end i think I got through to a couple kids but it was a slow process.

The orphanage I was at was the one I visited in the first week, so I had already met a lot of the kids. I didn’t expect that they would even remember my name because I went with a group with more than 22 volunteers..but as soon as I walked in without missing a beat a bunch of children came running to me screaming my name ..I was so surprised! One of the little girls showed me where she lived and it was in a small little dark room…that she shared with 4 other children. It was so sad to see…they shared 2 single sized beds between the 5 of them…it was crazy. She showed me her little teddy bear that she seemed to really cherish…it made me think of how I had piles of stuffed animals and how lucky I was to be able to fully experience child hood and keep my innocent perception to the world. These kids have not only seen suffering, they have lived it.

So my placement at the school finishes at around 12:00 because that’s when they finish school so I’ve decided to do some projects of my own.I’ve started painting an entire orphanage which is so awesome…everyone is so excited that we are doing that!  Yesterday the children joined in to help us and we were all jamming to music..it was amazing.

Side note…in the past couple weeks I have accepted that by the end of every day I will be filthy. The kids love using my skirt as a napkin. One kid the other day wiped his boogers on my face! In the same day I had a kid on my shoulders and he let one rip…on my neck! To top it all off a little boy fell in dog poop and ran into my arms for comfort. It was everywhere! In all honesty at the beginning it sucked…but I have realized that these kids need to be loved…dirty or clean, I am going to do that.

A couple days ago at placement I found out the background story of all the kids at the school. Let’s just say I’m in tears just thinking about it. There is so much need for help…so much to do. I feel a bit helpless but I know it’s not about how much you do but how you do what you do. The teacher at my school told me that when we die got isn’t going to ask us how much we had or how good our job was..he is going to ask what we have done for our brother and sisters in need. There is a little boy named Living at my school that is actually the cutest kid…he was burnt extremely bad a couple years ago and spent a whole year in the hospital…his parents have no more money to get the surgery to fix his legs that still cause him pain and extreme agitation. Please pray for this little boy. It’s crazy how such a little kid can go through something like that and be more happy and smiley than most kids I know back home.

By the way. I met this amazing 16 year old girl at the orphanage im painting named Lilly…she makes clothes and bags and I got her to make me a skirt and a dress so I can support her…it turned out amazing so I was thinking of having her make a bunch of bags and skirts and then selling them back home to give her a source of income..i would love to hear feedback about what people think of my idea. If anyone thinks they would want a bag or something please let me know! I found out just 2 days ago that Lilly has been infected by HIV since birth…I took it pretty hard for only knowing her for such a short time. For someone with such an illness she really has an incredible outlook on life.

I’ve been so busy lately but I’m going to put in a solid effort to blog more because there always stories to tell!

Miss and love you all!!

Monica!!