Namumu Orphanage

On Monday we went to Namumu orphanage.. there are 60 kids living there, ranging in age from 2 to 18. Some are orphaned and some have family or parents who don’t have enough money to raise them so they have decided it would be better if Namumu raised them. In these cases children can leave and come back for visits and holidays if their like. The other kids live at Namumu all the time.

The kids in Africa specifically in Zambia are well behaved.. and generally take care of each other. There is not a lot of fighting or bullying they are friends and just want to play and have fun.

We went to Namumu in celebration of international volunteers day.. so SNG and their volunteers along with Celim and 1 other organization participated in making and serving breakfast to the kids and then we cleaned the orphanage from top to bottom and the remaining volunteers prepared lunch for the kids. The kids are used to eating Nshima and beans for most meals. The irony is that they eat 3 meals in the orphanage as opposed to most kids who eat 2 meals but they don’t eat a lot of protein.. and they have no variety in their diets.  So yesterday they got toast and tea and for lunch there was rice, goat, chicken and coleslaw.. they really enjoyed the food and I think they liked different people serving it to them J The event itself was disorganized but the afternoon was playing games with the kids and I had a great time. It was so nice to hear them all laughing and having a good time. We ended the day with lollypops for all the kids and new hair clips for the girls.  I was exhausted from the days events but it was really a great day.

We bumped into one of the volunteers who works exclusively with the kids at the orphanage and he said they had a great time and were talking about how great a day it was. So it was a huge success.

It’s Thursday today.. we leave for vacation on Friday afternoon. Tonight we’re having our Christmas dinner because it’s the last time we’ll all be together.. it’s funny how quickly you develop a family bond.. it’s only been 3 weeks but it feels like I’ve known these people for years; it’s a really nice feeling.

Adam received a chicken when he arrived in Siavonga.. he named it Christmas Dinner and we will be eating it for Christmas dinner. He is going to kill it under instruction of Elisa.. we’ll see how that goes.. my job is roast potatoes.. and we’re going to stuff the chicken. Yum yum..