Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I have been working in an orphanage as a volunteer for 8 years. This year I wanted to do something different with the kids because they are always in their bedrooms or in the same house all the time. All the days are the same, so I wanted to give them a different experience, something exciting and at the same time educational for them. Two volunteers and I went with 12 babies of 15 months. I was wondering how to keep them safe, so we grabbed 3 shopping carts and put 4 kids inside each cart.

We entered the supermarket. The kids were impressed and the rest of the people were as well. Their little eyes were so wide opened trying to catch everything, the lights, the things, the people, the smells-- oh so cute! I went straight onto the fruit and vegetable section and pretended to be a teacher. I grabbed the fruits and told them the name of the fruit letting them smell it. It was funny because they tried to repeat the word and repeat it several times. For them, it was exciting grabbing different shades, colors, smells. Awesome!

Suddenly came a woman. She introduced herself very nicely, “Good morning, my name is Mary and I am the Supervisor, I am very glad to have you guys in the store and we want to thank you with these gifts”. She had 12 beautiful bags for the kids and inside them were some drinks, healthy cookies, 1 diaper, and a little bottle of milk. All the kids grabbed their bags. Then the nice supervisor called her friend and told her to bring the balloons. The kids let go of the bags immediately and fought between themselves to grab a balloon, they wanted all the balloons of the supermarket. I made a recess and give them some drink and food.

Later we went to the fish section. I told the employee to lift up a big fish. He was very confused, but I told him “Oh, please it is for the kids, they have never seen a fish in real life, and this is a good opportunity to learn.” He smiled and called his friend and they both lifted up a big fish. The kids were amused.

The last isle was the dog food section, where they saw different bags of food with pictures of dogs on them. They love dogs so they were very happy. The trip was ending, and they were exhausted because of all they saw, so we returned to the car. On the way, I found the supervisor and her assistant who wanted to say goodbye to the kids. They told me to come back whenever I wanted but to call ahead of time in order for them to be prepared with more gifts. We exchanged phone numbers and said goodbye. :-)