Kids Kids Kids :]

This morning we had a change to go Regare to Pastor Henry’s church and paint the whole house… inside and outside. Although we didn’t get a chance to finish today, we will be going back the next 2 days. Along with painting, half of our team went and helped out at the bridging school down the street. The bridging school is for kids who haven’t had a chance to go to school for various reasons like not being able to afford it or just have to stay home. So instead of the kids going to school and having to start in first grade and work their way up, they go to this school for a year so they can teach them all they need to know to go into the appropriate grade for their age. I went and helped paint instead of going to the school, but it was sad to hear that there were kids around 12 who couldn’t even write their name, or read a single word. However, it is a really great program they got going on there. So we painted a couple rooms today, and then went down to the bridge-school and just got to play with the kids (kids from the school and kids from just the area around the place)!
First, Jenny was standing near the line of pre-school kids and she had stepped out one leg to stretch it, and looked up to realize all the pre-school kids were copying here. So Jenny and I sat there and would do silly things and watch the little kids giggle and follow us, It was so much fun to watch and see them laugh. They didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand us but it was a great to be able to play with them. Where they had the church and bridge-school they also had a feeding program. Here they feed about 100 to 200 kids every day, which is where they probably get their only meal of the day (Regare is one of the poorest places in Harare). So we spent the afternoon playing games like “Duck, Duck, Pig” (since they don’t have geese in Africa to play Duck Duck Goose). It was a great experience and I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.
It’s almost unreal the experience we had today, in that half the kids we saw today were orphans because their parents had died of aids or some other disease. And these kids live on so little and are for the most part great hearted, happy kids. It breaks my heart to think of how much they have gone through at such a young age. I just can’t wrap my head around how much they have lost in the little time they’ve been on this earth. It’s really hard to digest and process through because I have never experienced anything like this before.

For dinner we went to another orphanage of over 20 kids that Glen and his wife had actually built. There were actually 2 who were connected by a gate, and they had a great piece of land where the girls and boys could walk around. We were joined by 4 college kids who are staying in Zimbabwe for 2 months, and we ended up playing a name game and then capture the flag, which was AWESOME in their huge yard. We ran a lot and I think I went to jail like 20 times… haha. And then they served us dinner and we got to share a bit about how the house, came to be, and one of our team mates shared their testimony with the group.

Prayers for the kids are definitely much needed!