Day 2-It's All About the Kids!

Today is one of my favorite days on this trip.  We spent our time between 2 different orphanages we support.

We loaded the team up at 9 a.m. and headed to our first stop-Dares Orphanage.  This was the first time I’ve been to this orphanage.  What makes this so wonderful is that it’s an orphanage for physically and mentally challenged kids.

Culturally many of these kids, when born, are abandoned by their parents.  For these who make it to Dares, the care of the staff of this orphanage give them a somewhat normal life. The kids seemed to range in age between 2-13.  They also range from physically completely challenged to some mental impairment.

That’s where the differences seem to stop.  Bottom line these kids are kids.  They love to play.  They love to laugh.  They love to be active.

We spent nearly 3 hours with these wonderful kids in the morning.

We then headed back to the mission house to connect with the entire 28 person team.  After a bathroom pit stop and some mid day snacks we headed to our 2nd orphanage called LeFeur.

There we encountered more kids as kids.  We had brought a lot games, craft items, coloring books and the hit of the day-a jump rope.

The teenage girls in this orphanage were awesome as tandem jump roping.  The boys were as well.

Not to be outdone, the team all took to jumping and before the afternoon was over almost everyone took a shot at it.  Even me.