Ashley left

Posted by Ali

Today's news is sad. Ashley left tonight. It was super sad. It's amazing how close to her all of us volunteers got in only six (or in Kezi's case, three) weeks. Well, I guess Shae has been here for all three months that Ashley was here. Anyway, for her last day, we went off campus for lunch to a little place just a few minutes walk down the road to a small restaurant. Davona came too and Ashley brought Hidaya, "her" baby. It was fun to go into town with the other girls and I had pizza, milkshakes and cake. Yum! On the walk to the restaurant I told the volunteers and Davona about the albino chairman who had seen me put on lip gloss just before the start of our meeting this morning. He had asked me what it was and when I told him he asked where I got it and how much it was and then said that it was just what he needed to get because his lips are always sore and chapped (from being albino and having sensitive skin). It struck me as super hilarious because it was quite girly-looking lip gloss and I couldn't imagine a man using it. The girls thought it was as amusing as I had.

Volunteers, Davona and Hidaya at Ashley's goodbye lunch

I said goodbye to Ashley once we got back to the campus because I didn't know if I'd see her again before she left, but then later tonight I followed three of the albino ladies to Cradle of Love while they looked around the baby home. I wanted to take some pictures of them with the babies, and then after they left I ended up just staying around and playing with the kids before their bedtime. I just couldn't leave. I took a bunch of pictures, especially of Ashley with her few favourite kids. Then she had to leave and we all went up to the apartment to help her bring her things to the car. Then we all hugged her goodbye and some of the girls were crying and we all felt super sad.

Bye Ashley. We'll miss you, but know that you have amazing things planned for the next couple of months. We'll take care of "your kids" for you.

Note - I wanted to put up some of the pictures from lunch and tonight at the baby home, but it's taking a LONG time to load, so I guess I'll have to do that later. So check this post again later on or maybe just look at the Pictures link sometime if you want to see them.