Finding a Niche

I can never decide if that word is pronounced "nitch" or "neesh", but I think I finally found one here in Eguafo. We have had several volunteers leave in the past two weeks. I miss them but going from 8 volunteers to 4 seems to have opened more energetic space. And physical space too, since i now have my room to myself.

I've been looking for something that can be my pet project while I'm here; some small thing I can do to make a small difference. So last week while in Cape Coast, I tracked down a packet of needles and two spools of thread. And I began mending clothes. At first I was focusing on school uniforms, because the children wear them everyday and most of them have sleeves hanging half off, or the bottom seam of their pants ripped open.  Then I started getting all types of things given to me. Soccer shorts, skirts, trousers, anything really. It's a minor thing, but I feel productive and the kids get to keep wearing their clothes. Well, they'd wear them anyway but at least now their underwear aren't hanging out the back of their pants.

I've also gotten to know some of the Center kids so much better, and we have some characters. Last week, the kids were breaking up rocks into gravel to spread under the tile of the new orphanage building - at least that's my guess at the purpose - and one boy Dominic who is 12 was sitting on top of the barrel the workers mix concrete in. He's a skinny little dude with the best giggle, and I looked over at one point and gravity had taken over. His rear end had sunk down in the barrel and his arms and legs were sticking straight up and he couldn't get out or stop giggling. Edwin, one of the older boys, had to go lift him out. It was good comic relief - in fact, Dominic usually is.

These kiddos start to dig in to your heart, and you see so much potential in some of them, but with very little outlet. They will be hard to say goodbye to.