Hope, laughter, tears and admiration

There was a moment yesterday for me which is playing round and round in my head. A girl , perhaps 8, in her little Mickey Mouse t shirt she had just been given and a little shier than the others eventually said yes after I'd offered to give her a piggie back a few times.
To that point she had been more interested in my camera, which I'd shown her how to use.
She leapt on my back and between Peter Colin and I we had a great piggy back race and battle. As she jumped down she was beaming from ear to ear. A smile that stayed until the point we had to go, when her happy eyes filled with tears as she gave me a huge hug.

We will all come away with our special moments, the particular children who we made as close a bond only 5 hours will allow, but it was an afternoon of hope, laughter, tears and admiration for us all.

As we turned off the main road into the orphanage we had made sure we were in close formation, led by Jill. And there they all were, in beautiful costumes banging drums and waving us in, cheering and shouting us in. It was an emotional moment.

A short presentation from the Pastor and his wife about the school translated by her daughter in one of the rooms in the buildings was followed by a dancing show, where the children danced beautiful traditional routines, all perfectly rehearsed.

We were then treated to a lovely lunch and then the singing and dancing continued including an impromptu performance by the cycling possee. (Must remember to rehearse during the transfers next time!)

We then put our many gifts of footballs, cuddly toys, clothes and books on the stage, and the children chose things with the help of the orphanage staff. It was clear to see the delight on their faces with their new belongings, which they immediately took off to their dormitories and placed by their beds with all their other possessions.

The gifts were then put immediately put to good use, with impromptu games of badminton, football and volleyball broke out.

Except for those entranced by the apple iPad- incredible how these children, so disadvantaged managed trouble play

Like all good parties we then ended up in the kitchen - the old wooden building that our funds will replace. And then for an hour or so we just played, sang, joked, laughed with these very special children, so disadvantaged in so many ways.

Finally we gathered for a few photographs and then poignantly gathered in a circle while Pastor Rim and the children all chanted a prayer to wish us well on our travels. Their many voices chanted like 50 birds singing. And then we left.

It was truly a day I will never forget. I feel so proud to have done something for such a place whose objectives, both short and long term, are so amazing.

And I hope that for 'my' Mickey Mouse girl, for a couple of hours at least I could fill a tiny bit of the role her father will never be able to play.