Day 3 at the orphanage

What a busy day we had today. We started off by meeting the kids at a local amusement park. Definitely not Disneyland! I found out the older child I've been hanging out with is not a boy afterall, but a girl. Oops! She found me as soon as I got off the bus and she grabbed my hand, dragging me towards all of the rides. She had such a good time. We were also quite the show there for the locals, gathering a lot of attention (not to mention the news crew there). The nannies brought snacks of leechy nuts, bananas and mangoes. Hmmm....

We spent the afternoon at the orphanage, again, followed by news cameras. We the afternoon doing crafts and playing with the kids. The teens are doing some wonderful artwork on the walls to brighten the place up. Late in the afternoon I spent time in the nurseries with the children who don't seem to get much time out of their cribs. It was tough, but such a blessing to be able to bring a smile to their faces of hear them laugh out loud. I got video of each child so that I never forget them.

Last night we had a wonderful experience on the streets watching a local folk dance. There were probably 50 dancers ranging from 50-70+ dancing to live music for about an hour. Afterwards we clapped enthusiastically for them, so then they gathered around us for quite some time asking our guide questions. It was wonderful to interact with the locals like that. When we complimented the horn player, he went and got his horn and played an encore just for us while an elderly man and woman danced. They went on for around another 10 minutes. Not easily done in this heat and humidity, thrown in with a bit of smog.

This was an exhausting but exhilerating day. Hopefully my high energy level lasts a couple more days!