Bree, Shakira and Adam

As I walked into the orphanage playground area the first little girl I saw came up to me and wrapped her arms around my legs. I bent down and told her how pretty she was and asked her name. All I received was a nod. She walked around with me a bit and I went off to visit some other children. Later, we were together again. As I held her I asked one of the mothers what her name was, they told me Gloria and that she was around three years old. I then asked the little girl her name again, she replied with Shakira.
Confused? So was I.
I asked the mother why she told me her name was Shakira and she explained that she had only been at the Welcome Home for one week. This little girl's mother was killed and her father a soldier in Somalia - they changed her name to forgive her of her past. We sat down together and I asked her if we should count all her fingers to make sure they were there. I wiggled each one and counted from one to ten, then we clapped at the end. I told her how lucky she was to have all ten fingers and how wonderful Welcome Home would be for her, she again replied with a single nod. We went through the counting of her fingers and toes a few more times and then we both were off to interact with others.
A while later we were together again. I told her the names of all the different colours we could see and sang "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" she laughed and can now point to anything yellow :). Soon after, we decided to count our fingers again. We went through hers a few more times and she began to join in. Next, we moved to mine and she started counting and wiggling my fingers all on her own. The mother looked at me and said "Wow, we have never seen her do that before, all she knows in English is her name! Now she can count to ten in English!"
What a wonderful experience, the only downside was knowing I now had to leave. She followed me and tugged on my hand. Eventually, she was distracted by one of my team members giving her a hug. As I loaded into the van, with tears in my eyes, she stretched her arm through the bars and waved. I smiled and she smiled back.




Posted by Bree