The Farm

I think I'm going to have to do three different post about the last two days! There's just so much to say and so many pictures to post (:

This post will be about The Farm. Going into the farm I was a bit nervous to be honest. I wasn't sure what to expect of the kids and I was also really nervous to sleep over. I didn't know if there was really anything that we would be able to talk about with the kids at The Farm and I thought it might be a little bit awkward and unconformable.. this whole trip has been like that though haha Once we actually got to The Farm though, all the kids came up to us and introduced themselves to us. They were so nice and friendly! We split into small groups and in mine and Blake's group we got to hear a couple of their stories. Some were really sad, a boy talked about how his group of friends and another group got into a fight and that one of his friends died, but when he told us he seemed to have no emotion. It makes me sad that they can talk about it so casually and so emotionless. The way they talk about it makes me feel like it's not real, or something like that. When I look back and think about their stories though, all the things they've had to live through are really sad and some of them are only 12 years old. It makes me really appreciate organizations like Made in the Streets though. The kids at The Farm are SO different from the kids we see at the slums. I could never imagine The Farm kids being the kids that looks so tough and sad on the streets. The kids at The Farm sang with us and danced with us and we had a bonfire and had marshmallows and hotdogs! It was so funny because all the kids had never seen a marshmallow before and they stole them from each other or ate them right away and would come back to us and would say "I need another one, I lost mine."
There was a girl named Lydia who was in my small group who was really sweet and she was really shy too. Later on though she got more comfortable and she started to follow me around and talk with me. She saw me putting on sunscreeen and was really intrigued by it, she wanted one of my bottles because she thought that if she used it she would get "light" skin like mine. It made me upset to hear that.

Me and Lydia

All in all, I really enjoyed The Farm. I felt like we actually got to connect with the kids. The Farm is by far my favorite place so far and I really miss all the kids there! I think we get to go back on friday to drop off some backpacks though so I'm really looking forward to that (:

All the kids LOVED the cameras and they took them the entire day and had photoshoots and took pictures and videos of everything. They're really fun to look at (:

Ian was the one who took my camera and enjoyed taking a bunch pictures of himself. He's very photogenic!

Frank! One of our favorites, he was really outgoing and talkative. He wants to be a photographer

Simon showing Sydney all the great pictures and videos he took on her camera