I don't know what to say about today, truly. The earlier part of the day was great, to be honest. It was the most fun I've ever had with the kids and I really thought that I was connecting with them even more. Two blind men work at the orphanage and I had the chance to speak with one of them today- Sopiep, who was blinded while playing with a landmine when he was four years old. He really is the sweetest man and his English, which he learned just by listening to others, is impeccable. He's wonderful, and I cherished the opportunity to talk to him.
The last part of the day was... hard to witness. We visited CHA, the orphanage where the group worked last year, and found that most of the kids were gone and the remaining ones were nothing like the kids at CPO. They were completely drained of energy and they scarfed down every bit of food we gave them. The owner promised they would eat fried fish tonight, though there was nothing cooking when we left. Everyone just looked sad. It was awful to see. I couldn't imagine how the members of our group who'd worked there last year felt.
A day before this, we visited the slums, which was a horrible experience for me. Nearly everyone there is HIV positive, the ground is littered with fungus and garbage, and the houses, if you could even call them houses, are impossibly tiny and crammed together in this huge neighborhood. They are so much worse off than the kids at the orphanage- it made me sick to think people lived this way.
Life, it seems, is indeed not fair.
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