umm... i think so?

last weekend kelly had been planning to visit a friend, allison, who is a house-mom at an orphanage located kinda on the outskirts of the city, and i jumped at the offer to go with her. (of course most of you know that i have no sense of direction, so it could be located right in the middle of the city for all i know.) anyhoo, in my mind, allison is a rock star: her charges include 54 teen-aged girls! whoa! i didn't even like my own teen-aged years, and can't imagine trying to support 54 teen-agers with varying physical and emotional needs with limited access to very few resources. total rock star.

four of us ladies started out with the youngest children (this department included kids from 0-4 years of age.) i've never been to a real orphanage, so it was a difficult place to be, i ain't gonna lie. what play equipment they actually had was totally dilapidated and unsafe, the kids were just running around with limited adult supervision, clothes seemed too thin for the weather, etc. (this is not a knock on the wonderful staff who run the orphanage, just an acknowledgment of real conditions.)

of course, i'm not naive, i know that this is how it is, but to see it in real life was a bit different. and actually, now that i think about it, the kids here seemed in Much better shape than i had anticipated, when comparing/thinking about stuff i've read or watched in the past. no one was rocking, the kids were interactive and seemed stimulated overall. but, i was a still quite a few universes apart from the privileged rich kids i see during the weekdays.

these kids just came up to us with arms outstretched, ready to get scooped up. one girl in a pink fleece locked eyes with me and came right to me, so i picked her up without hesitation. when i turned around to show-off my new little friend to the other women, they already had kids in their arms too! in the beginning i thought this was darling, but then i realized that it's probably the beginning of an attachment disorder. hmmm. they need lots of love.

a few minutes later, kammie, kristen and i were sitting on the stone floor, playing with kids who climbed all over us. kelly, who apparently had left the department, appeared at the gate and told us very directly, yet gently, to stand up and leave. we dilly-dallied a bit and she repeated her request. turns out that there had been a hepatitus a outbreak in this department, and she wanted to know if we had our shots, even though the kids with symptoms were being quarantined in the back! oops. for the record, i think i have.

we washed up in allison's kitchen and she gave us the grand tour of the facilities. it was a good afternoon.