We visited Freedom Children's Home this afternoon. Mr. Louis, who is the orphanage director's friend, picked us up a the hotel and drove us to a famous local candy shops to buy some sweets for the children. Louis said, "American sweets are good, but I am sure that kids like Indian sweets better." After we bought Indian sweets from that fancy, newly-established Indian Sweets chain store, we had an one-hour-and-half drive from Chennai to Freedom Children's Home. It is located in a rural area, which is 70 kilometers south from Chennai. During our trip, we sometimes passed by a herd of cattle, waited for goats walking across the road, and sometimes took pictures of pigs running along the road side. When we arrived our destination, it was around 6 pm already. The sky turned dark fast, but we could still feel the warm greeting from the children and the director's family. They stood in front of the main building welcoming us to visit their home sincerely and vividly. Some children were still shy but I could tell their curiosity and excitement from their eyes.
The director and Sam, his son, then showed us their facilities. Freedom Children's Home is a three-floor building. The first floor is the major living place for the children. Girls and boys have separate rooms to sleep. The director's family live in the second floor. In the third floor, the whole space is used as a praying room. We made to the top floor to see the surroundings. The building is located at the center of a field, without any other building within a radius of 500 meters. Although it is serene and peaceful, commuting would be an issue. That's probably one of the reason that the Home has a bus on its own.
After the overview, we all went back to the first floor. Children all already sit on the ground waiting for us. The director introduced us formally to the kids and Tae gave a short speech in return. These kids, again, were very interested in Asian faces, so Li-Wei did some tricks to amuse them. The director and Louis then gave us a detailed introduction to their progress from the very beginning, helping us understand how the orphanage was like in different development stages. We gained a lot of information from their sharing, but some children were bored and fell asleep. So, we played with the kids until we took off. By playing with them, we could feel that they were taken care well and grew up in a family with love. That's very important for a successful orphanage.
We took off at 9:30 PM. Louis drove very carefully because there is no lamp along the road. He showed us how dark it was if he turned off the lights. It was completely dark outside. We could not see anything without the headlights. When we arrived our hotel, it was 11 PM already. We appreciate Louis's help so much because he drove for almost three hours today. It is these enthusiastic people that make a successful orphanage.
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