Gertrude's Orphange

In the afternoon we went to visit the children at Gertrude's Orphanage. This is an orphanage for special needs children. There are also children who live there that do not have special needs. Right away I found Maxo, who is a you'd boy who is blind. I spent the entire time with him. We brought the children outside to get some fresh air and it was so great to see the new playground area that was completed this past November. There was a nice new swing set, a board that ran along the wall with different gadgets and cranks and horns, etc that the children could play with and a wide open, airy large room that the children could do nap time and group time in. The breeze would come up every once in awhile while I was playing with Maxo, and when it did, he would tilt his head toward the tops of the trees and sway while listening to the wind rustle the leaves. It was really neat to see how much he enjoyed that sound.

The children without special needs enjoyed racing the wheelchairs around and my calves were involved in a wheelchair crash. That did not feel the greatest! I told the children they needed to slow down and that they needed to be more safe. After the second crash, I had to tell one hound boy he was all done and when I changed to my stern tone of voice, one of the children with more severe handicaps started to belly laugh! My teammate who was with her told me she liked it when I got after that boy. That was so funny!

On our way our I had one final run in with a wheelchair right in the back of my heel, which really got to me! Still sore, but I'm all good. Pouchon, one of our translators, told me we had to go because there was an emergency. W all piled in and took off. When we pulled up to Bobby Duvall's soccer field, Pouchon said, "Surprise! Now you will play soccer" We all looked at him and then looked at us in our skirts and flip flops and said, " Are you serious?" Pouchon responded with his boisterous laugh, "Nooo!" We ended up having to pick up the other team, who was playing soccer with the neighborhood boys. So, on our way back to the guesthouse we had 33 people crammed into the taptap! We definitely had some team bonding time, up close and personal :)

This week is going extremely fast! I still need to catch up on yesterday's events, but right now we are off to church with FanFan. I hear they sing more English worship songs on Fridays!

Bondje Beni'ou,
Alicia