As our volunteering at the orphanage drew to a close we decided to throw a little party for all the kids. Debating on what to do for our party, Kendal and I were in quite the pickle, what do we get? Pizza? Pop? So without anymore hesitation we asked the director what he though was a good idea, his suggestion being fruit to feed the kids. We were surprised to think that the kids would be more excited about fruit than pizza!!? However with the very small budget the orphanage has to feed so many children, their daily meals are consistently rice and a vegetable broth soup. They cant afford to buy fruit, so it is a very exciting, luxurious thing for the kids to have! Now with somewhat of an idea we headed out on a fruit hunt! With 40.000 riel in our pockets which is equivalent to 10 dollars American we both enough fruit to fill 5 enormous serving trays which soon fed 50 people with left overs, with $3 left over to buy some balloons for the kids. We expected it to be mayhem and we struggled to come up with a game plan for crowd control and distribution! When we pulled up, the children were thrilled and were freaking out over the 5 trays of fruit we had with us! To our surprise, the kids were extremely helpful to set up a buffet type system. They all lined up so nicely. All the girls first, youngest to oldest and then all the boys to follow, youngest to oldest. We set up the desks in a long row, making a long table for everyone to sit around. They all waited patiently without touching their food until the last child sat down with their fruit bowl, then they joined together in prayer. It was beautiful and really showed how their are one big family. They ate their fruit so quickly, all pitched in to clean up, then we brought out the balloons. With all intention of the balloons being filled with air, some of the instigator kids attempted to fill theirs with water from the front tap. We turned in to big kids again as Kendal and myself secretly snuck to the roof top about 4 floors high, filling up balloons with water. We dropped the first one near the kids and waited for their reaction to the massive water balloons we were dropping. I expected they would run and away and yell "cha stop!" which in translation means teacher stop! But instead they were all yelling for more water balloons to be dropped on them. They all huddled under the dropping zone yelling and looking up for more. It soon got to the point where filling up water balloons consumed to much time, so we began to fill up about 4 liter buckets of water and just dumping them over and over again constantly for about 45 minutes. They kids absolutely loved it! The staff members said it was the first time that they had ever experienced a water fight! Once the water fun was over, Kendal put together a video from all the pictures and video clips taken over the 4 weeks. They all sat down in front of her and she played it for them on her iPad. They had never had a movie made for them before and they loved it! After all was said and done it was now time to say our goodbyes to everyone, dreading this day since we got here it was extremely hard! Because after teaching these kids and getting to know their quirky and fun personalities you just felt like you have only began to scratch the surface with getting to know them. With us about to leave, my main man Hoy ran upstairs and grabbed me his teddy bear and gave it to me and Kendal receiving a Barbie doll from his sister, Sravet. It's just crazy though all these kids are extremely genuine and don't think twice about their belongings they share all their clothing and toys both the two toys we were given were toys very close to these two children. As said before in a post from Kendal all they have is maybe one or two balls and a rubber band to play with! And it's just unbelievable how I think twice about sharing a bag of potato chips with someone. Each child has taught Kendal and I so many very valuable lessons about life. There are so many that we can't put our finger on every single one but we know we will keep learning from them as the days go on and we continue to digest our experiences with them.Today was extremely hard but the things that these kids have taught me are lessons I will always have and continue to carry out as much as possible through my travels and through my everyday life at home in Canada.
Thanks!
Jeremy
Why we chose Pearl'd Moments
The word pearl came to mind for us because it metaphorically represents our motivation for this trip. The clams harsh outward appearance looks rough and lifeless, however inside lies one of natures most precious jewels. Each person in this world has their own appearance and story, yet inside we all posses the precious gift of life. It's something every human shares together across our entire world. Each of us are our own clam with different stories, but inside of us we all have reasons in our life that light us up and make us happy.
Moments simply reminds us that this is all we got. All we have is this moment, and then its gone. We have one life to live, so be courageous, be uncomfortable and do what truly matters to you.
awe thats so cute those kids will never forget you two.
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