The Bahama Emergency Children's Hostel- My experience with the orphans

A week before our vacation we came up with the idea of visiting and volunteering at an orphanage. We knew Nassau was a poor island and in good conscience I couldn't enjoy the beauty and and luxury while ignoring the poverty that lay just beyond. I pulled up a list of orphanages on the computer Saturday morning and Jason contacted one and got a quick response from Nakita from the Bahama Emergency Children's Hostel. We were surprised how quickly things fell in place for us to go. The night before we were to port, the cruise director made several announcements about being careful venturing out on our own. We were warned to not wear any flashy jewelry, which was not a problem. We were nervous about taking a cab and the warnings didn't help. We arrived in Nassau the next morning, gathered our back pack and two plastic Walmart bags full of towels and socks for the kids, grabbed our passports and headed off the ship. We walked past all the tourists and the ship excursions over to a group of men to find someone to take us to the orphanage. They asked us where we wanted to go assuming we were headed to the beach and were eager to take us. We could tell our destination caught them off guard. We told them we wanted to go to the Children's Hostel and a tall, strong man stepped out of the group as if emerging from the shadows and said, "I know where that is. Follow me."  He walked briskly. It was hard to keep up as we walked farther and farther away from safety and security. He wore a black winter hat and dark sunglasses. It was warm and rainy that morning. We got to his van. I saw the word "taxi" very small on the outside. We reluctantly got in and the doors closed. We were quite nervous and tried to talk to ease the tension, but he clearly didn't want to talk to us. He was on his phone trying to get a hold of someone. We felt as if we were in a very dangerous situation and were completely at his mercy as we rode farther inland not knowing if he was taking us where we wanted to go or somewhere else. We finally saw the hostel and were so relieved. We asked him how much we owed him and it was nearly $50, all the cash we had. It was as though he intuitively knew exactly what was in our wallet and took all of it. We didn't know how we were going to get back to port, but we reached our destination and it was like a beacon in a dark place. They welcomed us in with such joy and warmth. We got to meet Nakita and she hugged us as if she knew us and was so grateful we had come. Here in the South there is a culture of morality. The difference between the saved and unsaved is blurry. In Nassau it was as night and day. We told Nakita about our taxi experience and gave her the things we brought for her and then she took us to see the children. As soon as I walked in the door a little boy's arm wrapped itself around my leg and refused to let go as I walked. I knew he would be the one I would love and want to take home, but instead leave and probably never see again. He wanted me to pick him up and every time I tried to set him down he said, "no". I obliged. Eventually he did get down and started playing with Jason. Finally wearing himself out he snuggled into Jason's lap tried to sleep. His name was James. Half the kids there had cerebral palsy. I don't know what the stats are for that disability, but I know that 90% of down syndrome babies are aborted because the parents don't think they can handle it or they think they will have a poor quality of life. I don't know what will happen to all the disabled orphans when they age out of the system. If we are truly pro-life how should we as Christians respond to these orphans with disability? I don't know. It's a tough question to wrestle with. We played with the children. They were all in a small room. One was playing with a brush and a broken comb another was holding a piece of plastic bread that was broken. They had a lot of books and a tv that had Tom and Jerry playing. The couches they sat on were so worn you could see the wooden frame. After a few hours of playing, it was time to say good bye to James and the other children. We could tell he didn't want us to leave. In a way it seemed cruel to play with him and show affection and then walk away. When they were done cleaning the facility they showed us around. It was very clean and simple. There weren't many toys. I would say fewer than 10 that we saw and there are 30 kids living there. Everything they had was so worn out. Nakita arranged for their personal bus driver, Mr. Williams to take us back to port which was such a blessing. We asked him to take us to a bank because we wanted to pay him something, but the ATM wouldn't work. The director of the orphanage rode with us. She had to stop at each of the schools to get permission for the kids to miss school to eat on one of the cruise ships. She didn't want them to miss out on that experience. So we got a personal tour and got to listen to Mr Williams talk about God, the culture and the children. He told us about the big Christmas parade called the Junkanoo that they do every year and how grand it is. I wish we could have seen it! He talked about how thankful he is that he can never go hungry because there are fruits and nuts in the trees in everyone's yard. He talked about how we are all equal and we belong to God so he can walk down the street and not be afraid. He talked about how children are a blessing and how the Bible is all about loving God and loving others and meeting each others needs out of our abundance. Mr. Williams was a treasure. He dropped us off near the port in the tourist area which was a very different Nassau than what we had seen. We went back on to the ship with much less that we had left with which was much different than everyone else. Over the last few years we've been wanting to get involved as a family in a charity. The ones in the Greenville area are so well taken care of by all the local churches that I didn't really feel like I was needed, we definitely feel like we can make a difference at the Children's Hostel and will continue to do what we can for them. I can't wait to go back! God calls us all to do something. What is He calling you to do?