Hope

It's been maybe a year (?) since i last wrote about Hope Family Orphanage up in Gleno. I was lucky enough to catch a ride up with some friends there last weekend to visit the kids there. Isa Brabridge is now back up there, permanently, to run the orphanage so i am glad. The kids really went through a tough time during the political turmoil and it was a struggle to feed them. There are three more boys now, one of them was so bright, and he showed me his arm which was broken before but never treated so there is weird nub poking out of his forearm.

i have to thank Clarence from Cold Storage who was so generous. When we went to his store on Sat morning to buy frozen food and biscuits for the children, he saw us, and without hesitation piled our car full of food.... the list:

(photo by S.Somphone)

46 kilos of potatoes (just arrived in container)
2 big cases of frozen whole fish
2 big cases of canned pineapples
360 eggs (!!!! one for each kid for about 10 days!)
at least 10 boxes of Kit Kat chocolates and sweets

The kids were of course over the moon.......... usually when we visit them, their fridge is empty so we always make it a point to stock it up. Alas, i don't drive if not, i would drive up every saturday! it's only a cooling 1.5-2 hours drive up!

The kids also rely on some vegetables they grow on their land. Some people helped to build a chicken coop but there are only 2 chickens now... so it is a reality that they do need help. I think i will buy fish next time cos they hardly ever get to taste fish.

Come to think about it, Hope is already considered a 'luckier' orphanage cos of Isa's australian connections. So can you imagine the countless 'nameless' more unknown orphanages out there? If you have info on them, i would like to post it on my blog.

(photo by S.Somphone)
Anyways, here's a photo of a kid doing a head dunk in the river. It's always my favourite spot for a stroll when i visit. The kids jsut absolutely lurrrrve getting soaked and to 'body-surf' the river, although some had difficulty keeping their (elastic-none-existent) pants on!