Hanging out with Kids

These last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Instead of writing about each event separately, I thought I'd just highlight some things for you.

Last week we spent the evening with the four children at Rakhym. We were planning to go roller blading at the square, but shortly after we arrived it started to rain. We decided to go back to the office instead and play games. It was so fun to be able to talk with them in Kazakh and just have a good time together.

Last Sunday we celebrated the birthday of one of the girls in our group at Saramoldaeva. We ate pizza, watched a movie, and played games. The most entertaining game that we played was "Pass the Pigs." Those of you that have never played this game are missing out.

On Tuesday we visited Saramoldaeva orphanage to play with the youngest children. While playing, one child who had been in our group but had gone home to live with relatives, came into the room. We didn't know why he was back, but took him outside to play with us. About halfway through the play time, a female relative came to get him to take him home. He came running and hid behind me because he didn't want to go. It's hard to know if he didn't want to go because he was having fun playing or if he didn't want to go because his home life was harder than his life at the orphanage.

On Thursday, we went to play with the kids at Ulan Orphanage. I was in Shymkent during the morning, so I didn't get to play with the youngest children. Since I had a cold last week, I hadn't been there for about two weeks. In the afternoon, as we were about to leave, the youngest children came outside. The kids saw me and came running, yelling Sara Mama - which is how they usually greet me. One of the boys, who has a difficult time expressing himself, came over to me and when I squatted down in front of him he just grabbed my face with his hands and dug his little fingers into my cheeks. I quickly got rid of the things in my hands so that I could better direct his excitement. It was fun to be reminded that I had been missed.

Well, those are just some snippets from my last two weeks. Hope you enjoyed them.