A Lesson Learned

I haven't talked too much about my schedule here at Ahope, so allow
me to fill you in a little bit. I spend a great deal of time at both
Big and Little Ahope. I teach some English and we do lots of arts and
crafts. Every Thursday, however, I take 3 minibuses and spend an hour
traveling to Ahope's Community Development Center (CDC). Every
adoption agency in Ethiopia is required to have some sort of program
that helps children stay in their own country. Ahope's program is the
CDC. There are over 70 kids there who come every day for meals,
activities, and overall care. Because it is a little out of the way,
not many volunteers go to the CDC.
Originally, I thought that I would be more involved in helping the
community while working at the CDC. Actually, I am doing the exact
same thing that I do at Big and Little Ahope...play with the kids. To
be honest, I generally do not enjoy my Thursday commute. The staff is
amazing, but it is 2 hours round trip (which is nothing compared to
what many Chicagoans do), and there are quite honestly, a lot of kids,
and since they don't get many volunteers, any that do come are VERY
popular. I typically have many children fighting for every second of
my attention.
Last Thursday, I was not looking forward to going to the CDC. It
was raining and I was very tired and really would have preferred to
relax. I made a commitment though, so I arrived at my scheduled time.
The previous week, we taught the kids the song, "You are my
Sunshine". Thursday's activity was to make suns, clouds, and happy
faces out of construction paper. Then when we would sing the song,
they could wave their pictures. They had such a great time! They
were so much more appreciative of us than the kids at Big and Little
Ahope since they rarely have a volunteer's attention. I immediately
fed off of their energy and was running around hugging, kissing, and
high fiving all of the kids. At the end, the nurse pulled me aside
and thanked me for my enthusiasm and told me I was doing a great job
with the kids and that he was so glad I was regularly coming to the
CDC. WOW. I left the CDC that day feeling so incredibly happy and
humbled.
It was such a good lesson for me that sometimes the things we really
don't want to do are the most rewarding. I can not wait to go back
this Thursday.