MAMA'S ORPHANAGE

Last week Melinda Kinghorn told us about an orphanage that is about 30 k's away.  We collected money from some of the missionaries in the office to buy food.  Melinda had been there before and knew some of the things they would need.  We went to a grocery store at Norwood Mall and filled two carts.  We bought rice, maize, potatoes, oil, powdered milk, beans, diapers, etc. and seven rubber balls. We also took some quilts and newborn kits from the Area Office Warehouse.   On Saturday morning ten senior missionaries climbed in cars and drove to the little town of Tembisa.

The name of the orphanage is ‘Tembisa Tots – Bulamahlo Orphanage’ and is owned by a wonderful lady they call Mama Regina. She has been doing this for 20 years. Mama Regina is 70 years old.

 We pulled up to the orphanage and a little boy opened the gate for us.  We drove inside and were immediately swarmed by the children.

Unloading the car

They hugged our legs and held our hands.  We had them help us carry the food and blankets into a small building.

  They loved the balls and we could see immediately that we should have bought more. There were a few spats and tears over them because the kids didn’t want to share. 

The oldest children were girls and they were about 12 years old.  There were about 30 kids all together.  They turned some music up really loud and performed some dances for us.  A tiny little girl was the star of the show.  She is about 2 and tried real hard to keep up with the older girls.  She was darling.

The little girl in front was the star

Everyone doing their dance

 


  The kids that had the balls played catch with us. One little boy took my hand and escorted me into an empty room.  Three other boys followed and we had fun throwing the balls around.  One time the ball hit me in the side of the head and they thought that was pretty funny.  They started aiming for my head and so I had to really pay attention. 

One of the ladies with her baby that helps at the orphanage

He just wanted a lap to sit on

Walt kicked a ball back and forth with 3 or 4 boys in the yard for about an hour.  He then played volleyball (over a clothes line wire) with some of the older girls.  You could really tell that they just loved having someone to pay attention to them.

Whenever we looked at this little boy, he cried and ran to his mother.  We finally found  him a ball and he was much happier.

We took lots of pictures of the kids.  For a while we sat on a little cement ledge and the older girls started combing our hair. 



Putting braids in Sister Turndown's hair

"Your hair is so soft"

They ran a brush through my hair for half an hour and kept telling me how soft it was. 

  We took four of the quilts and put them on the older girls' beds.  When one of them came in and saw her bed, she jumped up and down and gave us a big hug.  They were all so very appreciative.

These girls were so happy to get a new quilt on their bed.

Two of the girls asked a couple of the sisters if they would be their mothers. 

Mama Regina was not there when we first arrived but came after a while and it was fun to meet her.  She gave us all big, big hugs.  She wrapped one of the blankets around herself and began to sing.  That was fun.

Mama Regina

 

We asked her where she lived and she said she lived right there at the orphanage.  It was a fun morning and we’re so glad we went.  We stayed for about 2 hours and no one was really ready to leave.

Mama Regina's orphanage