Kolfe and Kechene

A few photos of our time at Kolfe, this first one is of our new friend, Solomon.

Tuesday 1/13/09

We woke up feeling rested after a good night’s sleep- the first in 4 nights. We finally heard Abe cry when he woke. He woke up screaming and when Ryan took him out of the crib, it didn’t help at all! It took him a few minutes to calm down. We decided to try a bottle, and that did the trick. After he finished it we had our happy, smiley guy back.

We enjoyed lunch with Belay and several adoptive families before going to two of the government orphanages. This was very hard. The first of the orphanages was Kolfe. This home is for boys ages 12 and up. Basically the boys are allowed to stay as long as they are in school. Once they finish school, they are given approximately $450 and sent out to make their way in the world. The living conditions are unfathomable, yet they were incredibly kind, loving, and joyful. I thought, from everything I’d heard, that this would be the hardest part of the trip for me, but that was yet to come.

We left Kolfe and went to Kechene. This orphanage services children ages 0-12 years and girls exclusively from 12 years. This is where I Iost it. The older girls building was tough, but when we went into the building that housed the toddlers and infants, well, words can’t describe the emotions I felt. There was one room that had about six 2-3 year old children. They were dressed in dirty footed blanket sleepers. All of their noses were runny and there was no adult who was obviously caring for them. I could see no toys except for one little boy playing with a stick in the dirt. But, they had each other. They walked around with us for a few minutes and they clung to one another’s hands. They had a community of their very own.

They followed us into the infant room and I was only able to stay there a moment before I had to walk away. The babies were so beautiful and so tiny. There were 4 of them laying in sad little cribs, all attempting to hold their own bottles. We were not allowed to take any photos at Kechene, but I know the pictures in my mind will be there forever.

The one thing that I take comfort in is the fact that those little guys have excellent odds at finding forever families. Unfortunately, that is not the case with those children ages 5 and up. I just know that if people could see these children, their beautiful, graceful spirits, and the conditions in which they live, this would not be the case. They are precious and they were eager for a hug, handshake, or any sort of touch.

We stopped at the supermarket on the way home and then spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Abe. We had left him with his Gladney caregiver as suggested for part of the afternoon and he had a very easy time transitioning both when we left him and when we returned. Overall, he’s a very content little guy.

We have determined he’s certainly a good eater. He has eaten everything we’ve offered happily and anytime we eat, we’d better be prepared to share! He continues to be a happy guy freely offering smiles and occasional laughs.