The Orphanage

Hello everyone! I just got back from the orphanage; it was my best experience at an orphanage by far.

We arrived after taking three different buses which took over three hours. Once we arrived, we hung out with the children there and played with them. It’s not really easy to describe hanging out for three days, but we’d play with them, take care of them, teach English to the older ones (and I was even helping teach some Chinese characters to a couple of the first graders).

On the last day, the woman asked if I wanted to help move chickens at their farm. I asked how many she had… She said she had over 4,000. I was thinking I must be confused but once we got there, I understood. There were 4,000 chickens outgrowing their cages and needed to be moved about 80 yards away to a different coop. They’d get the chickens out of their cages, put them in boxes, and we’d move the boxes to the other coop and they’d grab those chickens and put them in their new cages. It was quite an experience! My favorite part was when I was carrying a box with over 20 chickens and the bottom collapsed right next to a doghouse which had a pretty ferocious dog in it. If you can imagine chasing chickens and how difficult that is, try chasing 10 of them while under the watchful eye of a guard dog. It was pretty exciting! They even had a few of the orphans come (8 to 12 years old), and they were getting in on the action as well. They couldn’t carry boxes because they were too heavy, but they’d haul six chickens in their bare hands. I was super impressed.

While we were on the way back to the orphanage, the woman was bawling and thanking us for coming and helping. There we five of us, but only four of them. What we did in a few hours would have easily taken them several days. I know we helped them immensely and I was so happy to be able to.

Three buses and three hours later, we were home again. That orphanage is in good hands. We were so glad we could go and spend some time with the 14 or so orphans there, helping out where we could. I hope we can go again sometime soon.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

p.s. In two and a half weeks or so, we’ll be heading back to America! We are looking forward to seeing all you Americans soon.