November 18th, 2010
Love
Today I am bursting love. It was a wonderful day, beautiful in every aspect. It was naive, but I did not expect to love the children this much. I can’t even imagine loving them more, but I know that somehow, as time goes on, I will.
How to describe today? It was one of those odd compiling of coincidence and ruttein that make perfection. It was a day of stories, of games and sunshine, of laughter, exploration, a day with people I love deeply. It was the best.
I arrived early today, and so read to many of the younger children before their lessons. Gathering up into a clump of kids and books and reading together is the highlight of every day for me. They are all eager, for the practice, or the challenge, but mostly for the attention. The younger ones suffer for being motherless, and so affection is precious. If I accomplish one this throughout my months here, I want to see the kids fetching books from the library on their own and reading them for the joy of it.
Then this afternoon, by some strange collision of scheduling I don’t understand the younger kids did not have Khemer school outside the orphanage today while most of the older ones did, so with just two students in the class I normally assistant teach the afternoon quickly turned into a game day! We played scrabble, and memory games and connect four and puzzles and younger children wandered through to join the fun, and of course I took the opportunity to pull out more books!
Add to this an afternoon break spent exploring with the other volunteers (Tim, Anja and Niamh) by motobike to find Cambodian food, a quest which proved quite successful! This was followed a foray into a gas station for ice cream to be surprised by the presence of a giant blow up Santa Clause and 30 cent Santa hats, which we amused the locals by buying and wearing while we ate our ice cream. And then a sunny afternoon romping outside with joyful children, playing beach ball and shaking fruit from the trees and posing with the very popular santa hats. Perfection.
An incomprehensibly beautiful day.
For this I will always be grateful.
Ah.... A day of love and learning, and the love of learning. Can't get better than that!
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ReplyDeleteGrandpa Bassett linked up with your blog on his own with his new computer. Both Grandma and Grandpa are reading the blog off the screen. This is good for 90 year old beginners!
ReplyDeletePlease advise me that you, your colleagues, and your charges have not been harmed due to the riot.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Duke