Wyclef

On Monday I started working at Hope House Babies Home, which is where I'll be working for the next two and a half weeks. The idea of the place is that it is more like a home than a typical orphanage and the staff and volunteers do an amazing job at sticking to this vision. The home is a small, one floor stucco house with a large backyard with toys, a swing set and a sand box. Since I am working there six or seven hours a day, I will, of course, be blogging about it all the time, but today I want to focus on a certain orphan at Hope House.
Wyclef (wee-cl-eef), is three, making him the oldest orphan at Hope House. I can genuinely say that he is the best behaved 3 year old I have ever met (I hope I'm not jinxing his behavior by saying that). When we visited the orphanage on Saturday for orientation, he was the first child we met. He came running up to us, speaking vigorously in Swahili and we knew at the point that he was "the boss" of the house.
After just two days, Wyclef and I have already developed a deep understanding of each other. He is so good at both Swahili and English, that I can ask him what a word means that I've heard someone say in Swahili, and often he can tell me what it means in English. But his translations are not the only things I can count on him for. He is the leader of the pack of toddlers and they all look up to him. He listens to almost everything I say and responds to nearly everything I ask of him, he is my little helper and when I'm watching over 7 other 1.5 - 3 year olds, any help is greatly appreciated.
As a way of expressing his interest in me, he will spot me from far a way and point and wink at me, then often, with all his might, run over to me and lift his arms, a motion meaning "swing me around". Yet these energetic interactions are not the ones that I remember at the end of the day. What I remember are time like today, when I knew he was beginning to get tired, but all his friends were laying outside. I was trying to rally them all up for lunch and as usual, he was the first (and only) to reply to my commands to come inside. He came over to me and lifted up his arms for me to pick him up. Once I'd picked him up, he began brushing his fingers through my hair. At that moment, as I was trying to channel screaming toddlers in for nap time, and having already been thrown up on twice that day, I remember thinking that Wyclef knows is so attentive to the world and to people, that he sees exactly when I'm about to crack during the day, and provides me with his love, in order to make sure I get through the long, but great hours at Home House.
It is amazing how much you find yourself understanding a person who has only lived for three years, does not speak English as a first language, and who you've only known for two days. Having to be in the orphanage for six hours a day forces me to bond with the children on such a deep level. I have so much to learn from Wylcef and all the children here, and I hope, for the older ones at least, I can bring something to their lives in return.