Orphanage

So today was the most amazing day of my life! Today I went to an orphanage named Bethlehem. It is run by one lady "Mama" and has 10 children: Juvenille, Glory, Angelia, Wittness, Dorcus, Debora, Euilide, Abrhiam, Neehma, and Happy. The place is really run down. The children sleep two per bed. One of the rooms is right next to the chicken cage and smells terrible. There is another room used for cooking, and one for Mama, and then one about the size of storage shed that is used for learning, playing, eating, coloring, and everything!
Another volunteer and myself started out the day doing math lessons. We did counting and addition problems. moja, mbili, tatu, nne, tano, sita, saba, nane, tisa, kumi. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) After playing we walked about 1/2 mile to a "field" It was a giant open space of grass but was full of GIANT holes, and some rocks, but over all it served its purpose. We took 2 soccer balls with us and on the way to the field some 30 kids saw us and walked with us. When we got to the field we tried to play tag but no one really knew what it was. Since there were so many kids we played a version of soccer. Basically try to get the ball and keep it. The kids were from 1.5 years up to around 7 maybe. After we played socccer for awhile some of the bigger kids took the ball so everyone decided to chase me. They would run after me and catch me and then we would fall to the ground and everyone would pile on top of me for a minute. Then everyone would yell "get up" and we would start all over. It was amazing. I learned that there are 3 universal languages: playing, love/care, and a smile. These children live in conditions that not even the poorest in America live it yet they are still able to have fun and smile. It brought me so much joy to play with the kids. We played for about 1.5 hours before lunch and I can honestly say that was simply the BEST 1.5 hours of my life ever. These kids have made me think of life in a different way. I will never forget them. After playing we went back had "lunch" and did some coloring. It is terrible that SO many children are orphans here. IT is beyond belief the numbers. People just leave babys everyone and some of them are lucky to still be alive. Just remember when you are feeling down or see someone else down a smile can go a million miles!