Upendo Face Orphanage

I spent the day at an orphanage named Upendo Face with my friend Emily.  It is a gorgeous little orphanage which is currently being rebuild and refaced. They have a cow and chickens with the hope of one day being self-sufficient. They also have a little puppy named Upendo (which means love)!

We walked into the yard and the kids yelled, “Teacha! Teacha!” as they ran towards us and fought each other to be picked up or hold our hands.  We played, sang, and danced with the kids before they had to go to their classroom. Emily has 8 little ones in her class, and I went one by one asking their name, how old they were, and what is their favourite color, as they attempted to reply in English.

A few weeks ago a group of high school girls from Australia came and painted the orphanage. They donated lots of clothing to give to the kids. There is one little girl who Emily calls Snow White as she has worn a frayed, dirty, worn out dress every day since Emily has met her. We picked out a new outfit for her consisting of star leggings, a pink t-shirt, and a little zip-up sweater. She had the biggest smile, and was so excited (the next day she came to school in her Snow White dress again. When they asked her where her new outfit was, she said that she was saving that outfit for church on Sundays. Such poverty. They ended up giving her another outfit to wear to school).  We picked out outfits for other children, it was the highlight of my day!

Snow White:)

The kids lined up and I gave them all a quick health check, focusing on the presence of scabies and ringworm. Many had the big, malnourished bellies. Then I decided how much medication was needed, and another volunteer went to purchase the treatment.