The Orphanage

I had the “opportunity” to visit an orphanage last weekend and I didn’t anticipate how hard it was going to be for me. No, I did not fall in love with a child & want to take him/her home with me. No, I was not appalled by the living conditions. I had a really hard time because I felt as though the kids were trained to put a show on for the people that come to visit & possibly donate money. Let me explain:

If you walk into a Thai school (any age) the students will pretty much hide in a corner and whisper and point at you. You MAY have a few adventurous kids who will come up to you to ask for your autograph or who want to shake your hand, but for the most part, it takes a few visits before they warm up to you (but once they do warm up to you, you will constantly be surrounded by little kids). This was not the case at the orphanage.

As soon as we arrived, we had kids jumping on us, holding our hands, and grabbing the cameras out of our grasps to take pictures of us. The officials at the orphanage didn’t help either as for every “activity” they had arranged they made us pick a kid to “partner” with.

It just felt so insincere. We were supposed to go there to work (we had signed up to plant trees, cut grass, pick up trash, and do agriculture work) but we ended up just playing games.

I think that I have become a bit cynical in my old age.

Playing game with the kids.

Watching the games.

Group picture.