October 26, 2002 - Page 3

To finish off an already interesting day, I went with Danya and Griffin to their volunteer work at Caimede, an orphanage housing about 120 children. Danya and Griffin work with girls who range in age from 6 to 10; some of them are orphans, but most of the girls have families who just can’t afford to raise them.

We arrived at a rather chaotic time: some of the girls were heading off to school and the rest were running around and shouting. They were so excited to see Danya and Griffin. They asked them where they had been and what they had done, and some of the girls who had birthdays proudly showed off their gifts – ponytail holders and perfume samples. At no point in my visit was I bored.

After undergoing an in-depth examination from a shy eight-year-old named Carmen, I was allowed to hold her in my lap and tickle her. (Yes, she ASKED me to tickle her.) They wanted to know if we had paper so they could draw; then they wanted us to draw them pictures. We played tag, duck-duck-goose, tickled and got tickled, gave piggyback rides until we (the adults) were all hot and tired. The most difficult part of the day was explaining to the girls that we had to go. All the girls wanted was someone to pay attention to them, to play with them, to tickle them, to love them. I only wish I had more time to be able to donate to those girls and all the children like them.