Doreen

So it would not be entirely true to say that I am making ALL babies cry here. It is only sometimes. :-) We visited one of the Orphan Care Centers on my birthday and when we pulled up there were 2 kids there - the others must have been in school. One of them just happened to be the one who I dubbed "the cutest girl in Malawi" the first time I met her - her name is Doreen. This was the second time meeting her and I was psyched that she was there. When I got out of the car she came walking up to me, arms stretched out wide for me to pick her up. I kept telling her how cute she was and she was just smiling so big and laughing at everything I was saying. It dawned on me that she had no idea what I was saying. I found it interesting how praise, love and attention sometimes have nothing at all to do with what you actually say. It is how it is said.

I carried her into the meeting with the director and he said…"oh…she is better" and I asked if she had been sick. He looked at me funny and I said "oh…she is scared of white people". I was so touched and honored that she had changed her view when only meeting her one time before.

Thanks to my most favorite little people in this world, my nephews, I came with a box full of children's books to give out. I had not given any out yet as where you find one kid you find fifty and I don't have that many books. So I was so excited to be able to give her and another little boy two books from my nephews - Nemo and Monsters Inc.. Who doesn't love those?! Right after I gave it to them, they sat on the wall and just flipped through the books staring at each page. I loved watching it. I have seen enough here and spent a lot of my leisure time reading autobiographies of kids growing up in Africa to know how coveted a book is. Something so hard for us to understand. Add that to the list.