The Orphanage (28/12/08)

SUNDAY 28TH DECEMBER (PART 2)

This was probably the best thing I've ever done in my life. Not only did it make me feel good (this wasn't why I did it.), but it also made everyone else feel really good. I am talking about visiting the lighthouse orpanage (http://www.lighthouseorphanage.co.uk/) in Pnomh Penh. This could be the most depressing place in the world if you wanted it to be, but it turned out to be completely different. We arrived there early afternoon after going round the market to buy rice and fruit for the kids. We were told that this is very much appreciated as there is no government funding whatsoever for this orphanage, so it relied solely on donations. We pulled up in Elvis's mean machine expecting to be greeted by kids rushing to attack us and see what we had bought them. This was not the case. Not only did they not rush us, they waited for us to give them the gifts that we had. It was a complete contrast to what we had expected it to be, the kids were extremely polite and remarkably happy. We spent around 4 hours there playing volleyball and football and seeing where they slept and ate and attended classes. There were 60 boys and 32 girls aged between 3 and 17 sleeping 16/17 to a same sex room. They all went to school half in the morning and half in the afternoon, with the other part of the day spent learning 4 languages, Khmer, English, French and Japanese. These kids are absolutely amazing and most of them had been abandoned rather than orphaned, which was a little disheartening to hear. We didn't want to leave in the end and all the children wanted us to stay and play some more but we had to. We promised to visit again and we intend to keep that promise but we don't know when it will be. I have to admit that when I left, I did shed a few tears and that is something I am not ashamed of in the slightest.