Saris and sadness... saying goodbye to the kids

Today was our last day with the children at Anwesha.  So we got up early and met them right after breakfast.  A mayhem of craft projects followed. I headed up the “make yourself an elephant out of a kit” project: a truly funny experience in light of the complete language barrier.

Plus many of these of kids still hoard (a very common trait in orphans) and they sneak and hide extra craft pieces.  When we turned up short two elephant ears, the house mom immediately pulled up the shirts of all the little boys .... and lo and behold… there they were … tucked into the back of one of the kids’ pants. He already had two ears for his paper-plate elephant, he just hoarded up two extra ones for later (why? for what?). The elephants were a hit and kids carried them around for the rest of the day, talking and playing with them.

The beauty parlor craft station was super popular…. With lots of customers for sparkly nail polish and hair bows. Since the kids never get to chose anything for themselves (they are just given whatever little they have), choosing nail polish color was an almost insurmountable obstacle. Several ended up choosing to get each nail painted a different color so they could enjoy the full experience. 

We also did some card making and paper airplane competitions

Then it was time for the ceremony.  Today, this home gets out of the “incubation” period - where it has been partially supported by the Miracle Foundation - and into full partnership.  Because of how rough the conditions were, it has taken two years to get to this point.  For the occasion, we dressed in traditional clothes: men in dhotis and the women in saris.  Our guys looked great.

And the girls in saris were breathtaking

The saris are literally just one long piece of cloth which has to be pleated and tucked and folded around you in a special way and the whole thing is held up by two pins (if you are a westerner) and just by the correct folding (if you are Indian).  The house mothers had to come help us all get dressed.

The kids even got into full ceremonial garb… the girls back into their beautiful red and cream saris from the first day ...

And the boys got brand new white and hot pink dhoti outfits (such excitement about new clothes out of a package).  The dhotis had to be carefully tied onto each wiggly boy as the line of boys pushed and jumped and jostled on a bed.  

Then sash and head tie.

Look at that smile.....!!!!

The ceremony was long, boring and hot.  And in English because we were there. Those kids literally had to sit still in their seats for almost 2 hours of speeches that they could not understand.  They were wonderfully behaved. I kept waiting for a melt-down that never came. But when the music went on at the end… the dance, dance, dance party really started.

One of the TAFS' moms donated dozens and dozens of teddy bears for us to bring to the kids.  We stayed as long as we could at the home and finally gave them out - as a final surprise - after dark. The kids were shrieking with joy and excitement.

It is impossible to describe how hard it was to say goodbye to these kids. There was lots of tears (on both sides) and many of our group were shell-shocked at having to drive away in our Tuk-Tuks and leave the kids behind.  One of my boys from Team Hartee - Ruman, the little boy in the middle of the photo below - said to me as we were leaving, "Didi (the word they use for "Aunty"), I never forget you."  How does that not just rip your heart out?

So rather than focus on that part, I'm just going to leave you with some photos that say it all....