almost done...

My time at the orphanage is coming to a close. It seems a bit unfair that I am finally feeling at home and it is almost time to go. I have made up my mind to go traveling for a month through out South Africa and will be leaving Cape Town next week. It is bitter sweet. I am excited to see as much as I can and think that it is an opportunity not to be missed but on the other hand the children have carved a special place in my heart and it will be hard to leave them. I just tell myself that I will have to leave them sooner or later. 

I have a lovely couple of days at Masi. The sun was shinning brightly and we spent most of the days outside and we even going for a walk through out the township which excited the children as much as it did me. It is so interesting to see these little beings dancing through streets paved with garbage and gawking at free roaming cows with more flies on them than meat. They sang songs and waved joyfully at men and women looking out the windows of their tin shacks. 

The baby I was carrying fell asleep in my arms and his head bobbed back and forth with each step I took. I have truly fallen in love with  the children. I look at their faces and just want the best for them. But how can I insure that their lives turn out well? I can't. But there is a lot of work to be done in the world and I intend to use my life to a least chip away at the problems. 

I have been learning a little about each child's back ground and why they are here. Most parents are alcoholics. With the unemployment rate so high it is hard to tell if the parents don't have a job because they are drunk or if they are drunk because they don't have a job. Either way poverty is one of the worst things for the human spirit and I think you have to have experienced it to understand its damages on the soul. It is very hard to be a parent when you have no money. It is very hard to be a good parent when you have to work 12 hours a day to keep yourself and your child alive. I don't know who is to blame but I suppose thats not important; fixing it is what's important. But it is hard to imagine that such lovely little creatures could have come from such toxic situations. It makes you believe that is possibly nurture that trumps nature. The South African government does not like adoption I don't think; especially international. Ideally they would like orphans to be put back into their communities and be raised by extended families or foster parents. But I think that is a good way to keep the poor poor and people segregated by class and race. There are so many children in need of loving homes and a decent future and because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic more on the way.

I hope we can use this orphaned generation for change oppose feeding them back to the problems that made them.