Notes on the Real: A Soccer Tournament and a Carnival

This week was a big week at the NGO were Melissa works. There was a large team there from the US that usually visits every year. This year they had special fun days where they let the kids try food from America, play American sports, play with ice, and learn about American culture.

Then to top it off the organization had been invited to a local orphanage outside the city to play soccer. Our summer interns worked hard leading up to the soccer tournament to provide carnival games at the event. It was a huge success! All the kids loved the carnival games and watching the tournament. The event helped us continue to build relationship with a local government official who owns the orphanage and it gave us the opportunity to love on his kids. Many of the kids living at his orphanage are deaf, or older than many families would want to foster. Even though the carnival games are usually used for little kids back home the older kids from the orphanage loved every minute of it as they had never had the chance to play games like this before. The kids from our organization (who are either street kids or are from low-income families) were excited all week long. It was a real treat for them to get to ride in a bus and then they got to eat lots of candy at the carnival.

Hope you enjoy the pictures below!