The Lost Boys

We have been hanging out at the orphanage for the last couple of days. The first day that we spent a whole day with Katya, we walked Katya and Allie down the main street to the park. They played for a bit and there was a guy there with really tame rabbits that would let you carry them around and Katya and Allie had fun. However, we realized that there really isn't much to do in this town and since we are not supposed to let Katya into the apartment, we decided that we are not going to walk around every day. Katya doesn't like staying at the orphanage but we have actually been having a lot of fun and Allie is having a blast playing with all the kids.

My mom says the kids at the orphanage remind her of the "Lost Boys" in Peter Pan without any mothers and fathers. This is actually an excellent description of what the kids are like here. They are all covered in dirt, spend their days playing and doing whatever they want with very little supervision. If they get hurt, they don't really have anyone to cry to and they have become really tough little kids. Yesterday I saw a boy almost start a fire with a magnifying glass! I asked Allie yesterday if she was having fun and she said emphatically, “Yes!” I told her that it would be pretty fun to be able to get as dirty as you want and do anything you want all day long, but wouldn’t it get pretty old after a while if you don’t have anyone around to tell you that they love you?

In the last couple of days we have been more active than we have been in the last ten years. We have jumped the rope, played “keep away”, played soccer, climbed trees, and swung on the monkey bars. Allie is getting lots of exercise (which definitely isn’t a bad thing!). I jumped the rope for the first time in about twenty years and I have to say that I wasn’t half bad! The kids jumped the rope so much that they wore out the jump rope!