Lessons Learned Between Wallpapering
by Alex Newby
Since I’ve already ignored the time difference and called my dad at 5am Kentucky time, I figured it was time to just write a blog of my own.
As the official Hump day of the trip, we’ve finished up the wallpaper in the front room, and started wallpapering the hallway AND the back room. Currently we are out of wallpaper glue so most of us are just hanging around. Although times like these aren’t the most productive (for the renovations at least), the time we get to spend with the kids is the most fun. Addie has a few of the kids gathered around her Mac and they’re taking those awesome distorted pictures that every Mac user loves. This morning, Sasha, one of the boys that hangs around a lot, made a few of us take a break to watch a movie the YWAM people had helped him and his friends make. It was a spinoff of the Pimp My Ride show, called Pimped Homeless, where they pimped a shopping cart complete with tin foil siding and a fan on the back. It was actually really funny, and I’m pretty sure Sasha loved the fact that we all laughed.
A few minutes ago, Abigail and Kaylyn had Vika performing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes for everyone. Coming to the orphanage, I expected these kids to be sad, quiet, shy little kids. I expected them to be your typical orphan, the ones you see in movies and stuff. Having spent a few days with these kids already, I realize that it was bit ridiculous to come with that outlook. These kids are just like anyone else. Most of them are older, probably 18-22. They’re energetic, they joke around, they run up and down our halls. They’ve made up nicknames for a few of us (Josh seems to have been tagged with Tupac because of his bald head, and EVERYONE has started calling Addie Eddie Murphy) They have strong man competitions out back. ( ask Steven about his group pull up experience)
The kids are not hopeless and they are not counted out just because they are orphans. This is still an ongoing lesson for me, but I think just the shattering of my previous stereotypes about these kids has already done so much. These kids don’t need pity but instead people to believe in them, people to serve as role models and people to help empower them. The YWAM staff has done such a great job with all these things, but I almost wonder what things would be like if more people stepped up more often to regularly hang out with these kids, and kids all over the world just like them.
Anyways, just a lesson I’m kind of learning out here, if I figure anything else out, maybe I’ll write another blog… maybe not. Until then, I’ll be gluing some wallpaper.
