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Published: February 8th 2011
As we bumped into the dirt courtyard of the Lighthouse Orphanage, I wished I could have brought moreto donate. Clouds of dust were billowing up as the older children played volleyball. The youngsters were stacking up brightly coloured building blocks in the shade. I had expected visiting an orphanage to be harrowing experience, but from the moment I stepped out of the moto, I was grabbed by tiny hands all wanting to introduce themselves. I was supposed to meet the managers, but I was escorted off by a young boy and girl who politely introduced themselves and were straight in there with “what is your favourite colour” All around hands grabbed me for attention and there was some dispute over who would hold my hand first. My apprehension about visiting the orphanage was lost in a sea of smiles. Of course it is impossible to overlook their past mistreatment as some wore the scars visibly on their skin. But we were not here to pry into their past, we were here to play and entertain!
The bag of toys in my right hand had soon been raided and the children were now playing various ball
games in the playground. One particular little boy called Somna had us playing volley ball for over 45minutes, in the baking heat. I thought he might get tired or at least bored after the first 15 minutes, but no, he was like a machine and not even breaking a sweat in the 30 degree sun. I had to give in as I was starting to feel a little faint and I went on to building blocks, something a little more relaxing.
There were 3 little boys who didn’t need toys to have the time of their lives, just the giant 50kg rice sacks that had been donated. Initially, the rice sacks were stacked up but they would eventually slump down after being jumped on. Of course each time they fell down, Ste was the man to pick them back up again. They wanted me to help but I couldn’t budge them an inch. The children loved having their photos taken and so I offered them my camera to try and take photos themselves. They loved it, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried as they were passing it to
one another. However there was one thing I really noticed about these children, they were never violent towards one another, or argumentative and if you gave them something like my camera they were extremely careful with it! And honesty, teaching a child to use my SLR is MUCH easier than trying to direct and adult. In fact most of the photos taken that day were by the children. But when the camera went out of my sight I naturally followed.
Nara, a young girl had scurried off with it to take photos of her friends in their dormitory and so I went inside. I was immediately offered a spot on the bed and I noticed the pictures of princesses pinned behind the bed head. We crouched on the bottom bunk and the girls introduced themselves. Their ages ranged from 16 to 12 and they all seemed happy to see me. Their English was immaculate so we had no problem getting to know each other. The girls then did my hair beautifully, plaited, with fresh yellow flowers in the back. I was impressed! And they all giggled when I said they should open a beauty salon. I
Bird Boy
This little fellow liked to fly everywhereasked them if they ever get fed up with tourists visitng everyday and tone girl said “no, they are my family, to me” which a found very sad but very touching.
We headed outside and the girls collared Jess so they could paint our nails. First when on a coat of yellow then flowers were intricately drawn on top, with green nail tips to finish. Not exactly my choice of colours but it looked great! One of the girls then tried to teach me some Khmer, which was almost impossible, but I gave my best shot at calling Ste a monkey in Khmer.
As we were leaving, the children asked if we were coming back and insisted we should. They tugged on our arms and pleaded with us to stay, we gave in and agreed to come tomorrow which had them cheering. As we left the gates, a stream of children followed us into the street and they even climbed onto our tuk tuk! There were lots of hugs goodbye and when our moto set off, they clung to the back before abandoning ship at the end of the street. The orphanage
Fat Bastard
This visitor didn't even leave his tuk tuk was nothing like I had imagined and I think this is mostly due to the donations it receives, either directly or via the internet. In fact, the most upsetting momet of the day was leaving AND the tiny naked baby in the street that tried to run and wave us goodbye but instead, tripped and face planted the concrete road! Poor thing.
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