Toy Story

At the beginning of the year, I had the merit to live for three weeks with the kids of the Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi, Africa. After arriving, I visited the nursery and decided to bring the nursery toys back to the guest house and give them a good washing. The toys are pretty old and well-used but the "bebbies" seemed to like them just fine. I guess I was the toy snob and maybe you are too. Take a look at the "Chuckie Doll"...only one limb, a vacant, scary, scratched-out eye and dirty! My first thought was that I would be horrified if this doll is what my son played with when he was a little boy. Well, that's the issue isn't it...these "bebbies" are orphans. Their mothers may not have liked them playing with this doll either...not only is it gross and scary, but it's really really white! And the other toys were comparable. So the toys were washed and most were returned to the nursery (there was a toy raid one night by a few 7 year-olds but that is another story). My thoughts were mostly, "How can these nursery children get some new toys..."

A couple days later, I saw two little boys playing with what looked liked the metal bars from the back of a school chair. One boy was standing on the two parellel bars of the chair which were laying on the ground and the other boy was dragging him down the road by pulling on the two upper bars. They were going back and forth, making furrows in the red dirt, laughing, falling off the bars, trading places and having a good ol' time. The metal is ragged and rusty and dangerous but my thoughts were mostly, "That looks like fun! I would have liked to have been dragged around on scrap metal with my friends...".

One day, the tall grass was cut with scythes by some workers and left to dry. Some of the little ones raked the dried grass into mounds with their hands, burrowed inside the mound and lay still until some unsuspecting person, preferably me, walked by. When I was "least expecting it", the little ones jumped up from the grass with "fierce" expressions and some pretty good roars. Well of course I was scared silly and had to chase and tickle them for revenge! It was so much fun and those were my thoughts, "This is so much fun! I wish I had taken the time to play like this with my son...".

The little ones play with whatever is available - they use their imaginations and they think outside the box and they have a good time with their "toys". On the other hand, the "bebbies" could use a little help. In addition to the "Chuckie" dolls, they have broken and dirty Fisher-Price toys, dirty stuffed toys and toys donated that require batteries (folks - there are NO batteries here!). If you would like to help provide clean, educational and safe toys to the nursery children, please donate to http://www.raisingmalawi.com/ and designate the Home of Hope Orphange as the recipient.