October 24th Visit

The time was suddenly changed from 1200 until 1600 so a lot of the people who were scheduled to go couldn’t make it. I once again borrowed the squadron van to transport us to the orphanage. Upon arrival, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the children to come back from the park where they were playing with a family who lived in the neighborhood. I don’t think they truly understood why they were painting pumpkins and they were a little hesitant to do so at first. After Sgt Danila painted a little on the pumpkin they finally got into it. 4 of the pumpkins looked like clowns while the 5th that the 2 boys did looked kind of scary. After painting the pumpkins the Danila’s gave out candy to the children. These children are so well polite and well behaved…. They kept sharing the candy with each other and us. Earlier, before the children had arrived, I had made a balloon dog. One of the little girls saw the balloon animal and wanted the balloons. I took out the bag of balloons and the pumper and gave it to her. The children went crazy. At first, they were trying to blow the balloons up with their mouths… it was so funny to see them with these puffed up cheeks trying to blow a balloon up. They finally realized that it just wasn’t working so the each had a turn at using the pumper, which only a couple of them could get to work. After blowing the balloons up they would run up to one of us and ask us to tie it for them and then make us something or they would make it themselves. One of the little boys had a great time of stabbing me with his balloon sword. We left shortly after they had used up ALL of the balloons.

Air Power Day

In order to bring the children on base, we asked if we could use the squadron van and as it turns out you don’t need a special form but a person who has a license that can be used off base. After procuring the van, I went to pick the children up but that didn’t go so well. The children were supposed to be ready by 1200 so that we could pick them up and bring them on base for the Air Power Day. Due to church and lunch they didn’t even arrive back at the orphanage until 1300. It’s not that this was that big of a problem but the other volunteers back at base were waiting around for an over an hour doing nothing. Also, we were expecting 12 children to come but only 10 came. This left a couple of volunteers childless. Once they were all ready, I got them all into the van and we headed off to base. I think that I should have brought another person to help watch the children while I drove because they were so excited to be in a car and wouldn’t stay seated at all. Once we got them to the base, the other volunteers each grabbed a kid, or tried to, after we got them on base. Since it was Air Power Day they didn’t need ID’s or anything to get in the gates. Most of the children were too young to really enjoy the airplanes but they loved the children’s corner. They loved the bouncy castle, face painting, and especially the cotton candy. The clowns frightened them a lot; at least the younger children. After the air show, we took the children to Burger King for dinner. I have never spent so much money at a fast food place before…. Over $50 in total. I suggest if you ever take the children to a fast food place again that you get more chicken nuggets and less hamburgers/cheeseburgers and also get lots of french fries and onion rings. After dinner, I had SSgt Preutt drive with me back to the orphanage. Due to all the sugar and excitement they were a little wound up. Words of warning…. If you hear people around the children using foul language please ask them to stop or leave the area. Even though they don’t speak English they pick up words really fast and on the ride back they asked us what sh@# meant. We did our best to explain to them not to say that but they are children and will do as they please. After we got to the orphanage, the owner treated us to coffee and a small magic show. The children really seemed to enjoy the show so we will try some magic at the next trip.

Sept 22

This is the first trip that I have sponsored to this orphanage. In order for the children to have a fun, memorable Chuseok, we went to the orphanage and had a BBQ for them. We met at the Mustang and left from there for the orphanage. It was a little difficult to get taxi's because of the Korean holiday and the fact that the taxi's didn't know where we wanted to go made it a little difficult; but luckily we made it there without incident. The children were still at church when we arrived so we sat in there 'living room' and ate songpyon (Korean half moon rice cakes which are a traditional food on Chuseok) while we waited for them to arrive. 3 other volunteers, Gabriel, Michael, Jen and I went outside to get the grill started so that we could have the food prepared by the time the children came back. After the first batch of hotdogs and hamburgers were done, Jen took them inside so that she and the owner could start making plates for the children. Gabriel actually did a great job of BBQ-ing until the last batch of food went on the grill.... All the grease from the burgers that had dripped onto the charcoal caught fire suddenly and burnt everything that was on the grill. After the children arrived, we handed out the food and ate lunch with them. Since this was my first time at this orphanage I didn't really know how the children behaved or would react to us but they were extremely well behaved^^ They loved the Capri-suns and the chips that we brought with us. We had a little left over but not much. I guess they had themas snacks for later. Or fed them to their dog. Afterwards, we took the children to the park for soccer. Gabriel had an SUV and when the children saw that they HAD to all squeeze in there and get a ride to the park. Once at the park, they found a salamander, ripped his poor tail off, ran around like crazy, and played soccer and basketball. We only stayed at the park for about an hour until they grew tired and sick of the heat. They got another ride back to the orphanage, which once again they LOVED. After that we sat inside for a few more minutes, had a group picture taken, and then left for base. I think that this trip went very well and everyone, including the children, had a great time.