A Visit to an Orphanage

Small brown skinned bodies with large brown eyes meet us as we drive across the dirt of the orphanage yard. Their hugs for us foreigners feel strange, sad.

Barefoot they gather around us hoping for something that we are not capable of giving. We have brought fresh fruit that they eat slowly, hungrily, and a few toy cars.

I struggle to breathe from the melancholy of the space and the obvious lack of medical care.

My mind wanders as I watch them play a skipping game, their voices chanting rhythmically as the recycled plastic bag skipping rope hits the dirt.

My reverie is broken as tiny ones line up with the others to dance, faces come alive briefly as their bodies move in familiar patterns.

Our mood is lifted and we feel able to move on, back to our lives of privilege, hearts awakened and forever changed by our visit with these youngsters, with small brown bodies and large brown eyes.

By Tanya Loretto, traveler to eSwatini, April 2018