Lil kids + lil presents = memory of a lifetime.

Before I leave Zambia (where I had my second placement) for Zimbabwe to start my third placement, I decided to give away majority of my stuff to the orphanage I’ve been working in. I’ve brought along some of my pethletes zipper bags so what I did was fill each bag with some letterpads from hong kong, some candies, pens, and some other random stuff like caps, etc, then give it out to kids at the orphanage.

Let’s admit it, everybody’s got favorites and there’s obviously a few kids which I very much prefer giving my stuff to. I asked the staff whether it’s good to just give my stuff to a few of my favs, they said there are so many kids it’s impossible to give sth to everybody so I might just as well choose whom to give. Makes sense.

Some kids don’t live at the orphanage, instead they live in the neighbourhood around and since they know we come everyday so they’d drop by every afternoon to play with us. My fav ones happen to be those who lives nearby.

Different kids had completely different reactions:

One of them, who is normally really cheerful, active and talkative, went completely speechless when I gave him his gift. His smile faded. He stared at it for a few seconds, then rushed home without saying goodbye….. either he didnt like it at all (hopefully not) or he has never recieved such a present he couldn’t believe his eyes.

There’s that other kid who’s deaf and dumb. He’s really sweet. There’s always a smile on his face, he greets everyone with hand gestures. He doesnt make a lot of noise apart from an occational giggle. He’s an excellent artist. When I gave him the bag he didnt know what it is at first. Then he opened the zipper and saw the pens and colorful writing and drawing papers. HE BURSTED OUT INTO LAUGHTERS! He rushed home as well, at the same time investigated each letterpaper one by one.

Then it’s that little chubby boy who never made it to the soccer team because of his bad footwork, speed and body shape (whoops). He got to play a friendly game that day. I gave him a small backpack (the yellow pethletes one) with the same stuff in. He wore it on his back throughout his match!!!!!

And there were many more….

That very same night all these scenes kept appearing in my mind, one after another, one after another. That suddenly reminded me that I may never meet these kids I’ve been seeing everyday for the past month.

I’m gonna miss them so much