As I think I’ve mentioned here on the blog, one of the things Adam and I really wanted to do while here in India is SERVICE. We especially want our kids to see that not everyone in the world has things as easy as we do in America and that those that have – should be willing to share with those that have not. Especially since everything we have is from God anyway. We are just stewards of the things he’s given us.
So for our service activity one week I decided to set up an appointment for our family to visit an orphanage about an hour away. We unfortunately ran into a few delays when the car company overbooked and didn’t have a big enough car for us which meant we rode in true “Indian style” with 7 of us (driver included) cramped in a 5 passenger car. No biggy, besides the fact that it made us late, and we were disappointed to not have as much time with the kids that we’d hoped, but besides that our day at the orphanage was so so great! Below are some pictures of us visiting the orphan kids, handing out chocolates, and balloons, and playing and getting to know all the children. Have you ever seen such beautiful children in your life? The kids here are just so precious!
The front of the orphanage where the kids go to school, sleep, eat, and live.
Going around the room and getting to know everyones names and ages. The kids ranged from age 6-15.
We brought some American Twix to share and then also passed out a whole bunch of balloons for the kids to play with and played the “do not let the balloons touch the floor” game with them. They loved it!
After that we showed them some of our family blog books so they could see what Utah and America looked like. They really enjoyed looking at all our pictures and asked lots of questions.
Angel faces I tell you. Such gorgeous kids.
One of our many friends showing off his bed in the “boys room.” This is where all the boys slept together. At least in this orphanage they had beds. In the one in Mysore everyone slept on mats on the floor.
I once again gave hugs to as many children as I could.
Later they took us upstairs to their recreation room where their toys were, the computer was, and where they had all their meals. This is how they sit for meal time each day. The girls room is the door to the right and the administrators office is the door to the left.
Boy side of the room! And the toy shelf for the kids in the back.
We spent the rest of our time with the kids just playing with them and talking with them getting to know them better. The highlight for MY kids was learning this fun new game. I still can’t remember its name, but the goal was to make one token hit another token into the corner holes. Its basically a lot like pool, but with chips instead of balls. 🙂
Sure was an amazing experience to spend the afternoon with these kids. Most of them are either orphaned or come from single parent families where the mother is no longer able to care for the child herself. Sometimes the mothers visit, but I hear its only maybe once a year. So sad. But how wonderful that programs like this exist in the world to help the children. If you’d like to do something to help from afar by providing money for a meal for these children for a day or week or month you can donate specifically to this orphanage online at http://abilashrayam.com/