The Last Supper

I have never seen 5 year olds eat so much! The minute we arrived all the children came running to the car and helping to bring all the food to the table. I would expect thirty kids who eat the same boring thing every day would be rushing towards me with a plate and spoon ready to eat and fighting for food. This wasn’t the case at all; the older children made sure the younger ones had a seat on the bench and a spoon and plate to eat with and then they found their own place either squeezed in or standing. They each said thank you nearly 10 times and sat patiently waiting for us to serve them food. We each gave them their plate and they all waited until they all had a plate, said grace and dug in. We had plenty of food; they even got to have seconds! Some of the small children ate more than I could have even eaten myself. I wish I could get them the meal they had tonight once a week or even a month. The children AND teachers even ate the bones; I spoke to another volunteer who is at our hotel but working at a different orphanage, and she said that they eat the bones as to not have ANY waste. The children were so excited and full of energy you would have thought it was Christmas; singing, music, dancing! As soon as everyone was done the children got three buckets and without even being asked to, washed all the dishes along with the heat boxes we carried the food from the hotel in, the tables, and the benches. After playing music, taking pictures, and dancing with the kids, I wanted to stay all night but it was sadly time for us to go. These last few days will be hard and I find myself planning my next trip in my mind; the thought of never seeing these children again is hard to even think about.

I stayed up a little later than I normally do to have a drink with another volunteer who is here doing work at a different orphanage; her name is Marcela, and she is from Scotland. Note to self: beer is even MORE dehydrating in Africa. We chatted for a while about how she is able to come here as often as she does at her age (36) and still raise money for the orphanage EVERY time she comes. She said she has a fundraiser every week where all her co-workers put a dollar in a pool and one person wins the pool of49 pounds; half goes to the employee and half goes to the orphanage- that’s about 25 pounds a week! The euro exchange rate is 2.85 wowzer!!!! While we were chatting she informed me of a conversation she had with one of the younger workers here at the hotel. Princilla is 19 and wants to go to school soon for teacher training. She asked Marcela “If she had black people in Scotland”, Marcela of course said “yes a few”. Princilla responded with a question that was honestly scary; “If a black man and a black woman have a baby in Scotland, does it come out white?” Marcella caught her thoughts for a second and responded “Princilla, it doesn’t matter where it comes out, it’s going to be black”. Princilla seemed confused but just said “ohhh hmmm ok” and shook her head.  Some people here are so sheltered and have no idea about so many basic things depending on where they went to school or if their parents even sent them to school; it seems like a waste of a good human brain with so many possibilities that are in the world.

Monday: it is hard to concentrate on teaching like we have every other week we have been here with the end being so close. I feel like there should be no school this week and we should just get to play with the kids every day all day until we leave. We are trying to take pictures of all the things we haven’t over the last few weeks; teachers, our classes, us with kids (I photograph horribly!) Rachel looks exactly the same in every picture like you could take her face from every picture she has ever taken and they would all be the same. I swear she has a “perfect picture smile” she presses before every flash. Whereas I look scared meets pained meets sick in all my pictures haha… One day I will master the whole “smile for the camera thing”. I have been trying to get you guys a good picture of someone with something outstanding on their head, but it’s hard to secretly snap a picture. You really have to just see it though, I mean they will put ANYTHING on their head and just walk with it there. I am on a mission! 

 <3 Good Things