First Day At SACH

So today was my first day volunteering at Save A Child’s Heart. I woke up this morning and left Jerusalem and arrived at the house which is right outside of Tel Aviv at 1:30. I got there when all of the kids were taking a nap, so it was a good time for me to get to know some of the other volunteers and unpack my belongings.

The kids that are staying in the house come to Israel for 2-5 months. They come with a mother or some kind of escort. There are seven kids currently staying in the house. I met six of them today. All of the children came with their mother except for Julia, a girl from Angola, and Ester, a Maasai orphan from Tanzania. Ester arrived a week ago with a woman named Sara. Sara is from Germany but has been volunteering in Ester’s orphanage for 4 months. Sara had to leave Israel tonight to go back to Tanzania and it was so sad to see her goodbye with Ester. Ester is 8 years old, and speaks English very well. She is always smiling and loves braiding hair. Ester’s heart is too large for her chest. The doctors have not yout scheduled a surgery for her.

Julia is 11 years old. She is from Angola and we had a lot of fun today together playing games and singing and dancing.

There are a couple of children from Zanzibar. Kassim is a 13 year old boy. He is very smiley and loves doing arts and crafts. Zainab is a 1.5 year old baby with down syndrome. She is precious. She never cries and is never upset by anyone. I loved playing with her. Nassor is the only child I have not met yet. He is 14 years old. He just had his surgery and is recovering in the hospital.

There is one child from Panama. Her name is Migdalia. She is one year old. She is always running around the house or being kissed by her loving mother.

SACH’s first child from Indonesia is staying at the house right now. His name is Kevin. He is 1 year old. He has a cleft pallet and a heart condition. I found out today that it is common for people with cleft pallets to have heart conditions.

There is one child from Ghana. His name is Kennedy. He is a very special boy. She loves to smile and play games. Kennedy has cerebral palsy, so he doesn’t really have control over his body sometimes. It is hard for him to speak and to walk.

There are other children that SACH is currently treating but they do not live in they house. These are kids from the Palestinian territories and from Iraq.

The rest of the day was spend doing arts and crafts with the kids and watching some movies. I had a great time.

There is so much more to say, but it has to wait for tomorrow because I am so tired and tomorrow is a very long day.

Goodnight.